Show compassion

I read the Bible a lot, and recently a word has been standing out to me. Both in the Old Testament and in the New testament I keep coming across the word ‘compassion’ and it is always in reference to God the Father or Jesus the Son. Then I kept coming across some political statements, on social media, about being able to have empathy towards Palestinians, without being a supporter of Hamas. What is the difference between empathy and compassion?

If I hurt my back, a lot of people have empathy for me. I actually live in a great community, and as I hobble around using a stick recently, a lot of people have empathy for me. They stop me, and ask how I am doing. They express that they feel sorry for me, and they hope I quickly recover. I really appreciate having so many people concerned for what I am going through.

Then there’s compassion. Jesus never simply felt sorry for a person, he always did something to help them. He had compassion for a blind man, and healed him. He had compassion for the crowd who had been with him three days and now had no food. They were hungry, and Jesus fed them.

Then in the Old Testament, we read in Isaiah 54:8 “” I will have compassion on you” says the Lord your Redeemer.” And just two verses later “” yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” And of course in the Psalms, like Psalm 86:15 “But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”

Even if the actual word is not used, we can see again and again that God feels the pain that his people are going through, and he does something about it.

If God is compassionate, surely he expects the same from us his followers? So how do we do that? It is easy to think that God is God, I mean, he can do things that we can’t. Wait. I believe that God has restricted himself to the prayers of his people. The first thing, then, that we can do, is pray. I read about the problems in Gaza and my heart goes out to the families struggling to feed their children. I have no idea about their political status, or whether they had anything to do with the atrocities that Hamas have committed. But to use hunger as a weapon seems incredibly cruel to me. And probably most of the victims were not on board with the actions of Hamas.

My first step is to bring the whole situation before the Lord, knowing that he cares for each and every person. I will ask him to intervene, to find a way that the Palestinians can be provided with food. And if you are not used to praying for these needs, let me give you a little bit of help. Write out a prayer, along the lines of “Lord, please help the Palestinians to get food for their families. Please help those who are trying to bring aid be able to get through.” Then just pray that every day. That won’t take too much time, and I believe that God will hear you, and hear me, as we pray and ask him to provide.

How else can we show compassion? I remember once visiting a friend who had been involved in a car accident. She was bedridden for a couple of weeks, and I came to her home and offered to help her. Yes I was showing her compassion – I wasn’t just feeling sorry for her, I was there to help her. Great. The ironic thing was that she asked me to do some vacuuming. No problem with that, except as I was vacuuming her stairs it became obvious to me that these stairs had been vacuumed more recently than my own stairs at home had been! This lady had a lot of friends, which was wonderful.

Most of us are pretty busy, and don’t have a lot of time to visit the sick and do their vacuuming. But there are so many other ways that we can show compassion. I have already mentioned praying, because I think that is very important, but a quick phone call can be a great way to encourage someone who is feeling lonely. Or maybe a personal email, a quick hello, and I’m thinking of you. Meals are always great when someone is not well, or has suffered a loss of some form. And if you are not very confident about your cooking, I know that I have sent cards for a local restaurant on occasion.

“I’m praying for you,” can say so much to a person. But please don’t just say it, actually do it.