Sympathy in Christian preaching emphasizes sharing in others' feelings and sorrows, reflecting Christ's compassion and fostering unity (Romans 12:15). Illustrations often use images of guidance, like a compass adjusted for accuracy, or communal response, such as people abandoning pleasures out of love and concern (Romans 12:15).
Sympathy corrects our judgment like a compass adjusted for iron cargo on a ship.
When the great steamer receives its cargo the captain must correct the compass, neutralizing the influence of the iron cargo in the hold. And sympathy keeps the needle of justice turned toward the star, corrects the aberrations of the intellect.
— N. D. HILLIS
Public sympathy causes people to abandon pleasures when their beloved king is dying.
See ACTING, ACTOR AFFECTED BY; KINSHIP; RAPPORT.
SYMPATHY BY PLEASURE-GOERS
London to-night (May 6, 1910), with King Edward lying dead, is a despairing city. While the sun shone a dash more brilliantly than it has yet done on any day this year, the people seemed to extract the utmost particle of hope which the medical bulletins could be made to convey. But evening came cold, dismal, with rain drizzling from heavy skies, and the crowds lost heart. Long before the final news came--soon, indeed, after the issue of the later reports announcing that the King’s condition was most grave and that the hoped-for improvement had not set in, the streets were practically empty.
It was curious to see how outside one theater where a popular success is running the queue which had formed alongside the pit and gallery doors melted away before the doors were opened. It was evident that these people, to whom a visit to a theater is such a treat that they stand for hours waiting to secure a seat, had no heart for musical comedy while their King lay at death’s door.--The New York _Times_.
In late 2016 in North Carolina, Jonathan Hayes was driving his pickup truck on heroin. He overdosed behind the wheel, lost control, and hit another vehicle. Two-year-old Mason Richardson was inside, and he died on impact. Mason’s pregnant mother was driving, and had her sibling in the passenger seat. Both were injured. However, no injury was as severe as the broken heart of Mason’s mom.
When the fire department and EMS arrived, they found Jonathan passed out from his heroin overdose. They administered Naloxone, better known as Narcan, a drug that counteracts opioid overdoses like those from heroin or OxyContin. It saved his life. This was the fourth time Narcan had saved Jonathan Hayes in the last six months. Also, since 2009, he has had fourteen criminal cases filed against him. This time around, it’s the second degree murder of a toddler.
“We are going to do everything we can to treat this like the violent crime that it is,” said District Attorney Ben David. However, there seems to be a debate forming around this incident and others like it. The debate is as to whether there should be a limit on the amount of times someone can receive Narcan and be saved from an opioid overdose.
Here is a comment from the Wilmington Star News article on Hayes and his murderous accident: “It’s a shame that he was given a second chance to live today, the little boy didn’t get one at all.”
It’s easy to see how people feel about drug addicts. However, drug addiction is a disease, and as hard as this may be to believe for some, those caught in an addiction sometimes make several mistakes before straightening out. Mike Page is a resident of Wilmington, North Carolina, where Jonathan Hayes killed the young boy in a heroin-induced car crash. Page is a former heroin addict, and is currently a peer support activist and champion of addiction recovery for his community. Page has been revived with Narcan three times in his life.
Daniel Meloy is the Public Safety Director of Colerain, Ohio, a place hit just as hard as anywhere by opioid abuse. Meloy has been a law enforcement official for 28 years. Most of that time, he felt nothing for drug addicts who committed violent crimes due to intoxication.
Meloy says, “It’s hard to feel empathy for an intoxicated person who caused a crash when you are looking at innocent people he has killed because he got behind a wheel when he shouldn’t have.” Meloy was referencing Jonathan Hayes. However, as of more recently, he has changed his mind about drug addicts. All it took was a little education on drug addiction and the difficulties people face in overcoming addiction. Meloy is now is a founding member of Quick Response Teams (QRT), an Ohio-based group formed in 2015 that takes a rather active approach to combating opioid addiction.
Following every single drug overdose in Colerain, a group from QRT, consisting of first responders and addiction recovery workers, visit the person who overdosed. They offer both access to recovery and case management. Amazingly, QRT has had an 80% success rate so far, entering four out of five addicts visited into treatment. Regarding people with such life-threatening addictions, Meloy says, “We need to get them the resources they need.”
Believing that the first responders on the scene of Jonathan Hayes’ horrible accident should have let him die is playing God. Choosing who gets to live or die is essentially murder.
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Original title: "Limits on Narcan? A Recent Death Begs the Question"
When Edgar Guest, the American poet and writer, was a young man, his first child died. Writes Guest:
"There came a tragic night when our first baby was taken from us. I was lonely and defeated. There didn’t seen to be anything in life ahead of me that mattered very much.
"I had to go to my neighbor’s drugstore the next morning for something, and he motioned for me to step behind the counter with him. I followed him into his little office at the back of the store. He put both hands on my shoulders and said, ‘Eddie, I can’t really express what I want to say, the sympathy I have in my heart for you. All I can say is that I’m sorry, and I want you to know that if you need anything at all, come to me. What is mine is yours.'"
Years later Guest reminisced upon that incident. He said, "Just a neighbor across the way - a passing acquaintance. Jim Potter (the druggist) may long since have forgotten that moment when he gave me his hand and his sympathy, but I shall never forget it - never in all my life. To me it stands out like the silhouette of a lonely tree against a crimson sunset."
When we show others compassion, it will never be forgotten.
#1925
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Rev. Brett Blair adds this conclusion:
I have wondered how it is that I want people to remember me when I come to end of my life's journey.
[name some accomplishments followed by] But I really don't care if someone remembers me for that. I really don't.
I do hope that people are able to say of me at the end of my life's pilgrimage: When we were sick he came to us; when we needed help, he was there; when I was down, he lifted me up. In short, I hope that my ministry is remembered for simple acts of kindness. For if that is the case, then my life would have been worth it and I might have come close to fulfilling the greatest commandment in life: Love God and love your neighbor. And I might hear Christ say, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
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Sermon in 1 Peter series. Christian virtues and harmony. 1 Pet 3:8-12
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HOW TO GET ALONG
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I. Harmonica harmony.
II. Qualities that promote harmony.
A. Be sympathetic. Romans 12:15
B. Brotherly love.
C. Be compassionate. Ephesians 4:31-32
D. Be humble.
III. How do we harmonize with rotten people?
A. Easy to be in harmony with nice people - real test is rotten ones.
B. Almost seems wrong to us - fake our feelings?
C. Receive a blessing.
IV. Why can't people just get along?
A. People need to be changed.
B. God takes moral sides.
#4142
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"My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy."
-- T. S. Eliot, Quotes from the Masters, 4/1/02
"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these."
-- Lloyd Shearer, Bits & Pieces, 5/16/03
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When former president Gerald Ford visited Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, several years ago, he had breakfast with some student leaders. As one of the students stepped out of an elevator, her heel caught on the carpet and she crashed into Ford. She repeatedly apologized as he helped her to her feet, but the former president smiled sympathetically. "Don't worry, young lady," he said. "I understand perfectly."
Isn't it wonderful to know that in an even greater way, Jesus understands when we stumble?
Corrie Ten Boom was not looking forward to her turn to speak. She and the others in her ministry team had gone to a prison to talk to the inmates about Christ. They had set up their equipment at one end of a long corridor lined with cells. The men peered through the bars to see the visitors.
First, a woman sang, and the prisoners tried to drown her out. Then, when a young man stood to pray, the noise grew worse. Finally, it was Corrie's turn. Shouting to be heard, she said, "When I was alone in a cell for four months..." Suddenly, the corridor grew quiet. With those few words, Corrie established a bond with the prisoners. They realized that she knew what they were going through. Her time in a World War II prison camp made her one of them.
This incident reminds us of something important about Jesus' coming to this earth. When He "became flesh and dwelt among us," He became one of us. Therefore, He understands our suffering. He knows what we are going through.
If I should die, how kind you all would grow.
In that strange hour, I would not have one foe.
There are no words to beautiful to say
Of one who goes forevermore away,
Across that ebbing tide which has no flow.
Ah, friends, before my listening ear lies low,
While I can hear, and understand, bestow
That gentle treatment, and fond love, I pray,
The luster of whose late, though radiant, way
Would guild my grave with mocking light, I know,
If I should die.
A farmer was out plowing his field one spring morning. The spring thaw had just occurred and there were many muddy valleys in the field. Through one particularly wet place his tractor became stuck in the mud. The harder he tried, the deeper he became stuck. Finally, he walked over to his neighbor’s to ask for help. The neighbor came over and looked at the situation. He shook his head, and then said, “It doesn’t look good, but I tell you what. I’ll give it a try pulling you out. But if we don’t get it out, I’ll come sit in the mud with ya!”
Although we may not all be farmers, we do experience getting “stuck in the mud” from time to time. And chances are we probably know someone who is stuck right now. Have you tried “mud-sitting” with a friend? It may be the best thing you can do!
#13530
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"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor." (Isaiah 61:1)
When Marie Antoinette went to her bridal, all the sick and the poor were kept out of her way, that no unpleasant sight might mar the occasion. When Jesus Christ moved toward His cross, the sick, the poor, the wretched, and the outcast of Syria's peasantry gathered into the street and highways to get within reach of His great, warming, hospitable love and sympathy. Wherever He went He drew the slums after Him.
- {From a sermon by S.H. Howe, D.D.}
Sympathy sees and says, "I'm sorry." Compassion sees and says, "I'll help."
-- (unknown), cited in BITS & PIECES
"We are not primarily put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through."
-- Peter De Vries, writer, cited in More of...The Best of BITS & PIECES
"Compassion calls for appreciating not only what comforts us, but what pierces us. It’s why the sweetest people are often those who have been most wounded by life. They know what it feels like and almost can’t help but care."
-– Marc Ian Barasch
In our physical bodies a toothache makes the whole body react in sympathy; the cessation of that ache makes the whole body give a sigh of relief. Why can't it be that way in the Church? Is it because we're so blind to the close and sympathetic union that Scripture enjoins between the members, that we allow the folly of selfishness to take the place of the wisdom of unselfishness?
Some years ago a man living in Wales had the misfortune of being involved in a mining accident which necessitated the amputation of his right leg. After a period in the hospital, he went to a prosthesis maker to be supplied with an artificial leg. When the appendage had been strapped to the stump, which was all that remained of the injured leg, the attendant requested that the patient get up and walk across the floor. Awkwardly, the man struggled to his feet and staggered across the room. Then, dragging himself painfully back to his chair, he slumped into it, utterly exhausted and discouraged.
"That's not how to do it," said the attendant. "Watch this!" Then he walked gracefully across the floor. "Ah," exclaimed the patient, "It's all very easy for you because you don't have any disability."
"Oh, haven't I?" replied the attendant. "Look." Pulling up the legs of his trousers, he disclosed that he was not wearing just one artificial limb, but TWO! Too many times we doubt or we get depressed and discouraged and we are inclined to say, "Jesus, it was easy for you. You were God and could not sin. You never tasted the abundance of daily temptation, toil, and frustration. Yet the writer in Hebrews 4:15 tells us "...we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin."
So the next time you find yourself doubting you can finish the race, look to Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. The next time you're depressed about giving up things for God, look to Jesus who gave up even more. Or the next time you're discouraged, remember the ultimate sacrifice-Jesus bearing the sins of the world on the cross as God turned His back, to say "I LOVE YOU" to us.
“I feel your pain.” So goes the popular saying. Noble in attempt, this saying rings hollow to me. Repeated ad nauseam it has lost its freshness and is at best the carcass of a sympathetic thought.
I have a further problem with this saying: it is untrue. I never actually feel your pain. I am pained as I see you in pain. That is empathy. I am pained as I consider the matter that pains you. That is sympathy. In neither case do I feel your pain. Your pain is experienced by you, and my pain is experienced by me.
I don't want to be overly critical, though, for I think this saying points to a deep desire in the human soul: the longing not to be alone in our pain. But this desire cannot be fully met in human relations because no other human will ever truly feel our pain. But don't resign yourself to hopelessness for I believe and have experienced that there is someone else who can truly feel our pain.
If we take seriously the Christian teaching that God is love, and that He is also omniscient and omnipresent, then God with a heart of love for us has been there and known every pain we have ever experienced.
Of course you might object that even if God knows of our pain, He does not feel our pain, for knowing and feeling are different. And you might be right. But there is another Christian teaching to consider. Actually it is a Christian experience: the experience of Jesus Christ. Christ's experience on the cross speaks of a God who does not just have knowledge of our pain, but has known pain Himself. You see, much, if not all of pain, can be traced back to the fall –back to our rejection of God. That is, on account of our spurring God we no longer live in the Garden, but in the sinful world with its attendant suffering and death. And here is where the Cross comes in. Through it, God deals with the results our rejection of Him? This necessarily involves pain: the pain of God the Father unleashing his wrath for the human race on God the Son. Christ's experience on the cross was not a three-hour episode that happened way back then. It is the definitive moment of human history that speaks in every moment of time. To believe any less is to cheapen the cross, cheapen God's judgment, and God's love. Christ bore the judgment we deserve. Christ bore the ultimate pain we deserve. Christ knows our pain.
____________
Copyright © 2003 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
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A man visited Tiffany's jewelry store in New York City. He was shown a magnificent diamond with its gleaming yellow light and many other splendid stones. But he observed one stone that was perfectly lusterless and said, "That has no beauty about it at all." The friend who was with him put the stone in the hollow of his hand and held it there for a few minutes. When he opened it, the man said, "What a surprise! There is not a place on it the size of a pinhead that does not gleam with the splendor of the rainbow. What did you do with it?"
His friend answered, "This is an opal. It is what we call the sympathetic jewel. It only needs contact with the human hand to bring out its wonderful beauty." How many lives there are that need only the warm touch of human sympathy to make them gleam with opalescent splendor.
When I was fourteen, in a two-week period before Thanksgiving, my dad developed hepatitis and died. It was a shock to all of us. He had always been so healthy. He'd only been sick once before and had bounced back quickly.
As one of eight children, I was usually lost in the crowd. Now, however, adults sought me out to console me. They told me how much I resembled my father and what a good man he had been. There was an outpouring of love, visitors and food to our home. To be honest, the months that followed his death were quite beautiful, in a weird way. I had never felt so immersed in love.
At school, none of my friends knew what to say to me. I did have one friend who came to see me at my house the day after my dad died. She sat quietly beside me. I now realize how much courage that must have taken. Besides her, none of my other friends acknowledged my father's death. They acted awkward around me. It was a strange feeling.
Several months later, one of the cheerleaders in my class lost her father to a massive heart attack. Usually, she was in the midst of a huge crowd. She seemed alone most of the time now.
I approached her tentatively one day during lunch. “I think I know how you're feeling. My dad died a few months ago,” I told her.
I didn't know what to expect. I was a little intimidated, to be honest. I didn't mix with “her crowd” too easily. They were all so good-looking and popular.
Abby looked me squarely in the face. Her eyes widened. And then she seemed to relax. We talked until the bell rang.
After that day, we chatted regularly. Sometimes it felt like we were in our own little world. We'd share stories and giggle about our dads. It felt good to have a connection with my dad through our talks. I cherished them.
The next school year a girl named Terry lost her dad. Terry was kind of nerdy. She was tall and skinny. Not even “my crowd” had much to do with her. Once again, I approached someone out of my need to have a bond with my father.
“I heard your dad died. My dad died last year,” I told her.
Terry sighed, then gave me a description of her past week. I listened to her every word. As soon as I could find Abby, I told her about Terry. Abby responded like I did. It was as if we were on a deserted island, and we had caught sight of a shipwrecked victim floating toward us.
We became a threesome. Not in a social way - we didn't really hang out together - but we snatched a few moments at our lockers and in homeroom to share bits of our dads. Just having someone who understood when we were going through a tough week was comforting.
I still have my yearbook in which Abby wrote, “Thanks for being my buddy. I needed you.” Occasionally, I hear from Terry. I have continued to reach out to people who are in pain. I've received comfort for myself, too, as a result of connecting with others.
Being able to reach out to others has returned blessings to me a hundredfold. I thank my dad for this lasting and life-affirming gift.
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Chicken Soup for the Christian Teenage Soul; Source: The Inspired Buffalo, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the-inspired-buffalo/
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[Original illustration here was a duplicate in HolwickID 25837-26027]
”Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, it if is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:16-17, NIV).
I recall an occasion when I was going through a very difficult time of grief and discouragement. I shared this with a friend whose immediate response was, “Are you in the Word, Dick?” — meaning are your reading your Bible every day?
My heart sank and I replied, “Joan, what do you do when you are hungry?
“I get the point,” she answered.
“What I need right now is a friend,” I replied.
Sure I believe in reading the Bible and praying daily, but will this take away our pain when we are hurting and desperately lonely? Not for those of us who have feet of clay.
After Elijah’s incredible victory at Mt. Carmel over the 300 prophets of Baal, Queen Jezebel was so furious, she was determined to have Elijah’s head. Elijah fled to save his life — into the wilderness. He was so depressed he sat under a juniper tree and wanted to die. God sent an angel to minister to him and did the angel say, “Elijah, rise and read your Bible and pray?”
No. The angel said, “Rise and eat!”
Elijah was emotionally, spiritually, and physically exhausted. What he needed was a good meal. Sometimes that’s what we need too when the cares and/or pressures of life have got us down. Or we need a loving hug … or someone just to listen to us, to care, and understand — not to give us advice or try to fix us, but just to be with us and give us their loving presence.
James had it right. True religion is not only to “walk with God” but to understand people’s immediate and felt needs and to minister to them at their point of need — or to be “as Christ” to them.
Suggested prayer: “Dear God, when I feel all stressed out, help me to find loving and understanding friends to reach out to. And when my friends reach out to me for loving support when they are hurting, help me to be there for them and give them my loving presence without any kind of compulsion to give them advice or try to fix them. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
”Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:14-15 NKJV)
Treatment Of Enemies, Sympathy
• bless…you — Matt 5:44, 1 Pet 2:23, Luke 23:34, Acts 7:60, 1 Cor 4:12 — do good to them by word and deed
• bless…not {curse} — not only refrain from evil, but do good, and unmixed good
• rejoice…rejoice — 1 Cor 12:26-27 — thus express sympathy, show love, and absence of envy at another’s good fortune
• weep…weep — John 11:33-35 — we lighten another’s affliction by sharing his tears” (Robinson)
Compassion — Pressensé
I. What compassion is:
1. It must not be confounded with mere natural pity. Christian compassion rises as far above this, as Christianity rises above the world;
2. It deems no kind of distress beneath its notice.
II. The reasons for the development of practical compassion. Christ felt compassion for us; should we not do so for others?
III. Its effects:
1. It takes us out of ourselves, and makes us partakers of all that is most affecting in Divine mercy, thus becoming the superior form of pity;
2. It imparts to us the greatest moral power for doing good to man, opens our hearts, and is the most effective method of conveying truth.
Practical sympathy — A very hard thing to do, because it requires such an unenvious spirit. I remember hearing of a little girl who went to her Sabbath-school, and when she came home, her mother asked her what she had done at school; and she, in the simplicity of her little soul, said, “Oh, dear mother, I am afraid I have done nothing; for you know there was little Mary Curtis, whose baby brother was buried this week, and she was so sorry, and she cried so that I cried with her; and I took her hands in mine, and kissed her; but it quite took all the lessons out of my head; and poor Sarah Miles, who is always behind with her lessons, had them this morning quite perfect; and she was so happy, that, although she got more tickets than I did, I was quite glad, and I told her so, and kissed her too.” “My dear,” said the happy mother, “ you have not said so many lessons, perhaps, but you have fulfilled the Apostle’s injunction you have ‘wept with those that wept, and rejoiced with those who rejoiced.’” — Paxton Hood.
“Divide each others’ troubles, and double each others’ joys, in this world of mingled troubles and delights.” — Baxter
“Paul’s writings, though diffuse in the doctrinal, are concise in the preceptive parts. On the former it was absolutely necessary to enlarge; on the latter it is always judicious to be short. The celebrated rule of Horace, ‘Quicquid praecipies, esto brevis,’ was never more exactly observed, nor more finely exemplifled, than by our Apostolic author.” — J. Hervey
Allan Emery, who has not only been successful in business but has devoted much of his time to providing leadership to many Christian organizations, is highly respected as a shrewd, yet kind, man. Credit his father.
Allan recalls taking an extended train trip as a youngster. One morning in the dining car, he heard his father, himself an important businessman, comment that the porter seemed to be in pain and walked with a limp. The poor man, it turned out, was suffering from an infected ingrown toenail.
Later in the morning, Allan was surprised to see the porter coming from his parent's sleeping car. There was a distressed look on his face, and as he passed by big tears fell from his eyes and cascaded down his cheeks. Going into the men's lounge, the man put his hands over his face and cried. Allen sat down on the bench beside him and at length asked, “Are you crying because your toe hurts?”
“No,” said the man, “it was because of your daddy.”
With great concern, Allen pressed for the story. His parents had returned from breakfast and immediately approached the porter, asking about his toe.
Mr. Emery explained that he wasn't a doctor, but he might be able to help him. He removed the man's shoe and sock, and carefully lanced the infected toe, cleaned it, and carefully bandaged it. “It doesn't hurt at all now,” said the porter through his tears. “It feels fine.”
“Then why are you crying?”
“Well, while he was dressing my toe, your daddy asked me if I loved the Lord Jesus. I told him my mother did but that I did not believe as she did. Then he told me that Jesus loved me and had died for me. As I saw your daddy carefully bandaging my foot, I saw a love that was Jesus' love and I knew I could believe it. We got down on our knees and we prayed and, now, I know that I am important to Jesus and that he loves me.”
With that, the porter burst into tears again. When his sobs subsided, he looked over at Allen and said, “You know, boy, kindness can make you cry.”
Sermon in Church Covenant series, #8 1 Peter 3:8-12
WATCHING OVER
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"To be zealous in our efforts to advance the Kingdom of our Savior,
and we further promise to watch over one another in brotherly love;
To remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and
distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy
in speech."
I. Fired with zeal.
II. Watching over one another.
A. There are different kinds of watching.
B. Brotherly love kind of watching.
III. Remembering in prayer.
A. Importance of prayer.
B. Remembering others.
C. Be practical.
IV. Giving aid.
A. In sickness and distress.
B. Maybe they will see Jesus in us.
V. Cultivating sympathy.
A. In feelings and speech.
B. Jesus shows us the way of sympathy.
In all their affliction he was afflicted … in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, — Isaiah 63:9.
Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. — 1 Peter 4:19.
Look at the gentleness of Christ as He weeps over Jerusalem, as He is moved with compassion at the multitudes milling as sheep without a shepherd, as He tactfully leads a woman at Sychar’s well to a knowledge of Himself, as He deals with the woman in the eighth of John, as He graciously instructs Peter to feed His sheep, and in every act of compassion and love of His sinless, holy life. Though He did display justified intolerance of sin (John 2:13-16) His life was full of gentleness. — C.F. Bundy
On Thy compassion 1 repose
In weakness and distress:
I will not ask for greater ease,
Lest I should love Thee less.
Oh, ‘tis a blessed thing for me
To need Thy tenderness. — A. L. Waring
A certain priest … and likewise a Levite … looked on him, and passed by on the other side. — Luke 10:31, 32.
When John Huss of Bohemia was going to his death for his faith in Christ, an old friend stood out from the crowd and gave the martyr a powerful grip of the hand. It was a brave act as it was dangerous to show sympathy for Huss. “Only God and he himself,” said Huss, “knew what that handshake meant to him in that time of supreme test.” — J. E. Harris.
Did you give him a lift? He’s a brother of man,
And bearing about all the burden he can.
Did you give him a smile? He was downcast and blue
And the smile would have helped him to battle it through.
Did you give him a hand? He was slipping down hill,
And the world, so I fancied, was using him ill.
Did you give him a word? Did you show him the road?
Or did you just let him go on with his load? — A. S. Chapman.
”And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever- increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Years ago, when I was first starting out in ministry, I was speaking to a college-age youth group in Lansing, Michigan. I will never forget what one young person said to me at the close. Her words were simple but left a profound impact on me. All she said was, “Thank you for being God’s messenger to me today.”
What a wonderful privilege it is to be God’s messenger to another fellow struggler. I believe that’s one of the things God wants from each of us.
My suggested prayer for today is in the words of an unknown poet:
Dear God:
Wherever our hands touch –
We leave fingerprints!
On walls, on furniture,
On doorknobs, dishes, books,
As we touch we leave our identity.
Oh [God] please wherever I go today,
Help me to leave heart-prints!
Heartprints of compassion
Of understanding and love.
Heartprints of kindness and genuine concern.
May my heart touch a lonely neighbor
Or a runaway daughter,
Or an anxious mother,
Or, perhaps, a dear friend!
I shall go out today
To leave heart-prints,
And if someone should say
“I felt your touch,”
May that be … YOUR LOVE
Touching them through ME.
Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen
Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness. —Psalm 119:149 –
When we love others, we listen to them. Sure, it takes time and effort to focus on them and hear what they are saying. But when we do, it shows genuine concern and respect.
Author Wayne Alderson tells of a young minister who spent a lot of time listening to the problems of his church members. One day he came home and said to his wife, “How did your day go?” For a half-hour she told him about a problem with the car, their son’s earache, and the difficulties she had getting an appliance repaired. The pastor immediately began to problem-solve, citing a list of things she should do.
But she just looked at him and sighed. “I have already done all of that,” she said. “I don’t need you to solve my problems. I just need you to be interested in what I’ve been through.”
When the author of Psalm 119 pleaded, “Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness” (v.149), he was expressing the truth that the God who loves us also listens to us. Listening is a part of loving.
Listening to a wife, a husband, a fellow worker, or a Christian friend may be just what that person needs to be encouraged or to see a problem more clearly. Go ahead and listen. God Himself shows that love listens. —DCE
My burden is now so much lighter,
I’ve glimpsed things I needed to see,
I have a fresh hope for tomorrow—
Because someone listened to me. —Egner
Listening may be the most loving thing you do today.
I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I walked to the door and knocked. “Just a minute”, answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90’s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940’s movie.
By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.
“Would you carry my bag out to the car?” she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing”, I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.”
“Oh, you’re such a good boy,” she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”
“It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly.
“Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice.”
I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. “I don’t have any family left,” she continued in a soft voice. “The doctor says I don’t have very long.” I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
“What route would you like me to take?” I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.”
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.
I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
“How much do I owe you?” she asked, reaching into her purse.
“Nothing,” I said.
“You have to make a living,” she answered.
“There are other passengers,” I responded.
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.
“You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,” she said. “Thank you.”
I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.
I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?
On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life.
We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.
But great moments often catch us unaware - beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.
________
The above story is true and happened to Kent Nerburn in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the early 1980’s. At the time he was working as a driver for the Yellow Cab company and worked what he called ‘the dog shift” overnight.
The story was originally published in a book by Nerburn titled MAKE ME AN INSTRUMENT OF YOUR PEACE and published by Harper, San Francisco.
At a huge Christian music event, I waited in line to enter a restroom and eventually joined another 20 or so women inside. Above the roar of hand dryers, there was chatter and laughter, but there was also another sound. One woman faced the wall in the far corner and was sobbing uncontrollably.
I don’t know how long this had been going on, but I was appalled to see how every woman there was simply ignoring a situation they either didn’t know how to handle or didn’t want to become involved in.
I couldn’t ignore her. I excused my way through the crowd and went to the lady, gently putting my hand on her shoulder and asking, “Is there anything I can help you with?”
She turned and, between sobs, told me that she was the mother of a family group who was currently on stage and that she’d just received a phone call that her own mother had passed away. Surrounded by professing believers at a Christian event, this woman was dealing with a devastating heartache alone.
Jesus Christ had compassion for the hurting. In Matthew 14:14, He looked at the crowd and “had compassion.” Likewise in Mark 6:34. And Matthew 9:36. And Mark 8:2. And in so many other passages. And we’re to be like Him.
Scripture clearly teaches us that compassion is a distinguishing characteristic of those who are in Christ Jesus. If an individual believer or an individual church focuses only on self, the compassion of Christ is missing.
If we are to reach a lost and dying world with the Good News of Jesus, we must do so with hearts of compassion. Our job is not solely to comfort and love “the brethren” -- we’re to extend Christ’s love outside our comfort zones. Beyond our family and friends. Beyond the walls of church buildings.
Jesus never stood at the church door, so to speak, and said, “Y’all come” (even though He was from the Southern Kingdom of Judah). He did, however, tell the church to “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23).
When I was a kid, an emaciated, clearly abused, dog appeared on our carport during a rainstorm. Trembling, she cowered against the brick wall, as terrified of me as she was of the booming thunder and torrential downpour. How did I get her trust me? I patiently worked my way closer to her as I spoke softly and offered her food and water. I was willing to put in the time it took to get her to trust me.
It took days, but eventually I was able to put out my hand to pet her without her flinching in fear. A couple of weeks later, she actually allowed me to clean and doctor her wounds. Halo and I became the best of friends because I made a conscious effort to get her to trust me, which was when I was able to truly show her compassion.
There are so many hurting, wounded people in the world. And some may want no part of your offer of help. At first, anyway. Relationships, like houses, require building. One piece at a time. Don’t sit around waiting to develop compassion because it’ll never just happen. You learn compassion through extending it.
Who around you could use a little compassion, like the woman at the Christian concert? Be the hands and feet of Jesus. Patient. Loving. Open. Vulnerable. Willing to meet people on their own level and taking the time needed to nurture a relationship.
Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness. —Psalm 119:149 –
When we love others, we listen to them. Sure, it takes time and effort to focus on them and hear what they are saying. But when we do, it shows genuine concern and respect.
Author Wayne Alderson tells of a young minister who spent a lot of time listening to the problems of his church members. One day he came home and said to his wife, “How did your day go?” For a half-hour she told him about a problem with the car, their son’s earache, and the difficulties she had getting an appliance repaired. The pastor immediately began to problem-solve, citing a list of things she should do.
But she just looked at him and sighed. “I have already done all of that,” she said. “I don’t need you to solve my problems. I just need you to be interested in what I’ve been through.”
When the author of Psalm 119 pleaded, “Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness” (v.149), he was expressing the truth that the God who loves us also listens to us. Listening is a part of loving.
Listening to a wife, a husband, a fellow worker, or a Christian friend may be just what that person needs to be encouraged or to see a problem more clearly. Go ahead and listen. God Himself shows that love listens. —DCE
My burden is now so much lighter,
I’ve glimpsed things I needed to see,
I have a fresh hope for tomorrow—
Because someone listened to me. —Egner
Listening may be the most loving thing you do today.
Sympathy sees and says, "I'm sorry." Compassion sees and says, "I'll help."
-- (unknown), cited in BITS & PIECES
"We are not primarily put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through."
-- Peter De Vries, writer, cited in More of...The Best of BITS & PIECES
"Compassion calls for appreciating not only what comforts us, but what pierces us. It’s why the sweetest people are often those who have been most wounded by life. They know what it feels like and almost can’t help but care."
-– Marc Ian Barasch
A certain priest … and likewise a Levite … looked on him, and passed by on the other side. — Luke 10:31, 32.
When John Huss of Bohemia was going to his death for his faith in Christ, an old friend stood out from the crowd and gave the martyr a powerful grip of the hand. It was a brave act as it was dangerous to show sympathy for Huss. “Only God and he himself,” said Huss, “knew what that handshake meant to him in that time of supreme test.” — J. E. Harris.
Did you give him a lift? He’s a brother of man,
And bearing about all the burden he can.
Did you give him a smile? He was downcast and blue
And the smile would have helped him to battle it through.
Did you give him a hand? He was slipping down hill,
And the world, so I fancied, was using him ill.
Did you give him a word? Did you show him the road?
Or did you just let him go on with his load? — A. S. Chapman.
At a huge Christian music event, I waited in line to enter a restroom and eventually joined another 20 or so women inside. Above the roar of hand dryers, there was chatter and laughter, but there was also another sound. One woman faced the wall in the far corner and was sobbing uncontrollably.
I don’t know how long this had been going on, but I was appalled to see how every woman there was simply ignoring a situation they either didn’t know how to handle or didn’t want to become involved in.
I couldn’t ignore her. I excused my way through the crowd and went to the lady, gently putting my hand on her shoulder and asking, “Is there anything I can help you with?”
She turned and, between sobs, told me that she was the mother of a family group who was currently on stage and that she’d just received a phone call that her own mother had passed away. Surrounded by professing believers at a Christian event, this woman was dealing with a devastating heartache alone.
Jesus Christ had compassion for the hurting. In Matthew 14:14, He looked at the crowd and “had compassion.” Likewise in Mark 6:34. And Matthew 9:36. And Mark 8:2. And in so many other passages. And we’re to be like Him.
Scripture clearly teaches us that compassion is a distinguishing characteristic of those who are in Christ Jesus. If an individual believer or an individual church focuses only on self, the compassion of Christ is missing.
If we are to reach a lost and dying world with the Good News of Jesus, we must do so with hearts of compassion. Our job is not solely to comfort and love “the brethren” -- we’re to extend Christ’s love outside our comfort zones. Beyond our family and friends. Beyond the walls of church buildings.
Jesus never stood at the church door, so to speak, and said, “Y’all come” (even though He was from the Southern Kingdom of Judah). He did, however, tell the church to “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23).
When I was a kid, an emaciated, clearly abused, dog appeared on our carport during a rainstorm. Trembling, she cowered against the brick wall, as terrified of me as she was of the booming thunder and torrential downpour. How did I get her trust me? I patiently worked my way closer to her as I spoke softly and offered her food and water. I was willing to put in the time it took to get her to trust me.
It took days, but eventually I was able to put out my hand to pet her without her flinching in fear. A couple of weeks later, she actually allowed me to clean and doctor her wounds. Halo and I became the best of friends because I made a conscious effort to get her to trust me, which was when I was able to truly show her compassion.
There are so many hurting, wounded people in the world. And some may want no part of your offer of help. At first, anyway. Relationships, like houses, require building. One piece at a time. Don’t sit around waiting to develop compassion because it’ll never just happen. You learn compassion through extending it.
Who around you could use a little compassion, like the woman at the Christian concert? Be the hands and feet of Jesus. Patient. Loving. Open. Vulnerable. Willing to meet people on their own level and taking the time needed to nurture a relationship.
Poem by Lindsay (Lionel) Gordon (1833-1870):
"Life is mostly froth and bubbles,
Only two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's troubles,
Courage in your own."
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