Compassion

Working on Operation Christmas Child week at the CC- we'll discuss compassion in mentoring and lessons before we tackle the project- here are some notes I made in preparation for the lesson/mentoring:

Two things that enable us to be compassionate:

1. Knowing who we are-
1. When you know who you are, you have to come to terms with the fact that you are a sinner and that you do not perform perfect all the time. A person who doesn’t really know who they are walks around with a false sense of self, a sense of self that is puffed up and conceited about all the good things he/she does and how hard he/she works.
2. And this person may have reason to think this. She may work hard and may follow the rules all the time, but if one looks deeply, much deeper, into one’s soul, one has to see who TRULY she is. The bible tells us that we all fall short of God’s glory, but that might be easy to accept- that we aren’t as ‘good’ as God. What is harder to accept is that even our best deeds, our best prayers, our best thoughts and acts are as ‘filthy rags’ to God. That is offensive and harder to hear. And the person who hears that and then shuts up her/his ears to it is the person who defines him/herself based on his/her ability to perform well or his/her morality and legality in terms of the law.
3. But a person who knows who he is, is ok with hearing that even his best deeds are like filthy rags. Because a person who knows who he is is acquainted well with the flesh inside him that at it’s core is offensive and crude.
4. So how does this knowing who one’s self is help one to have compassion? Simple: If you are confronted with your own crudeness and failings, then you are also confronted with the fact that any excellence comes by sheer grace of God. Then, when seeing the person who is obviously crude or suffering, you are able to have compassion for them knowing that minus the grace of God you’ve experienced and are experiencing, you’d be in that situation.
5. Here is a practical example: It is hard for someone who measures his/her worth on his/her performance to have compassion and sympathy for the homeless addict. Instead, the person stands in judgment on the addict because of the addicts choices. But a person confronted with the crudeness of his/her own soul can much more easily afford to show compassion to the addict because he/she knows that without the grace of God, he/she would probably BE the addict.

2. Knowing what we have-
1. The second thing that one must have in order to have compassion is the knowledge of what one has. If we are not thankful for the things we HAVE in our lives, we cannot have compassion on those who do not have. If we are constantly wanting more so much that we never take moment to reflect upon that which we have already acquired or been given, then we do not have any time to look to someone else and have compassion for what they may lack or be experiencing.
2. Here is another practical example: By God’s grace I was born to a middle class family and in a free country and have been afforded a great many luxuries. I could just as easily been born in a third world country where I have only known hunger and suffering and had watched the death of many around me. There is pain I have not ever felt b/c of the life I’ve had compared to what I could have had. But if I only concentrate on the things I do not have and have not been afforded, then I will not reflect upon that which has come to me so easily, by grace if you will, and which I have enjoyed so much. Being caught up only in what I desire, I have no room to look to others and have compassion for them and their lack or their circumstance. (This argument presumes that it is better to live the luxurious life than the life of someone in a third world country- but for the sake of teaching Jr. High students, I do not need to explore this thought, as legitimate as its exploration may be.