Compassion
Service
Hearts breaking for people, hands dirty from hard work. There’s just something they don’t tell us about compassion.
Pain, brokenness.
People suffering
The world groaning from its darkness.
Sickness, pain… soo much pain…
Loneliness, depression, so much emptiness
Sadness, anger, anxiety, despare
All these feelings… it’s sometimes too hard to bare
People hungry for truth, truth that is right in front of their face: Him
Yeah there’s just something they don’t tell us about compassion
They say let what breaks God’s heart break ours…
But how do we not let that break US?
We’ve talked about compassion since Sunday school… But do we really know what it means?
There’s a cost to compassion
To truly loving people.
Mother Teresa talks about loving people until it hurts… And it’s true.
The more you love someone
The more your heart will break
I find it hard to seperate myself from people I care about
When other people feel something… I feel it too
My heart is like a sponge… soaking up everyone’s stuff
There’s a cost to compassion, there’s a cost to love
Some say it’s not worth the risk
It’s not worth the heart break
Walking alongside people, suffering with them
Praying for them
Journeying with them
Crying with them
Sharing the load
Some say they should just keep their suffering to themself
But I say no way
We’re in this together
We are called to mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep
But when do we draw the line?
We’re called to carry one another’s burdans…
But how much burden do we need to carry?
How much is too much?
There’s so much need
I can’t do it on my own!
But that’s not even my responsibility
We are call to be servants
To serve rather than be served
To give rather than recieve
There’s so much to do
But how do we know when to stop?
We are called to see needs and to fill needs…
But we can’t fill every need!
We can’t help everyone!
We are called to be willing
To say “Yes I’ll do it”
To lend a helping hand
But a willing heart needs a limit too.
Because I’m human. And you’re human. And we need Jesus too.
When I’m battling the cost of compassion… the cost of service…. When my soft heart is breaking…..
I remember that Jesus’ heart broke for people too.
He says “this is how much my heart breaks for you sometimes. For everyone”
He wept. He went alongside people. His compassion lead him to heal people, to journey with them… And ultimately… it lead him to suffer for them. The worst pain the world had ever known.
He willingly served people, putting others needs before his (but he also looked after his own needs- by drawing his strength from the Father), he served even when no one recognised him or praised him… because he didn’t do it for that. His heart broke for people until it hurts and he served people until it hurts.
I can’t take the weight of it all on my sholders… But he doesn’t even ask me to.
I’m not called to do it all.
I say guard my heart Lord… protect me from taking on all the feelings/suffering of others.
He comes to me and he says…
Daughter… your broken heart is a gift. Your servent heart is a gift. Come, give it all to me. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. I will give you peace.
He reminds us that we can’t do it all. And that’s okay. He reminds us to sit in his presence… To be filled up with Him. And that I can’t do it all but that’s okay. I’m not called to solve everyone I love’s problems… I’m not called to carry it all.
And when my emotional sponge is filled up to the brim with gunk and brokenness… I can wring it all out in God’s presence. He tells me to let it go… to let people go sometimes because he will take care of them. And he will fill me with even more capacity.So I can keep loving people with my soft, servant, broken heart.
He says “trust me with the people you love… I love them even more than you do”
The life that Jesus lived is so radical. It doesn’t even make any sense. Loving people even when they don’t love you back, giving even when you don’t expect anything back, serving not because you want approval but just because you love people…. it challenges me to my core. Surely I can’t love that way on my own. I need supernatural power to love in that way… that’s why I need Him! Love… always requires sacrifice.
So there is a cost to compassion
These’s a cost to serving…
Compassion is painful…
But it’s a Joy.
Because in that place of a broken heart for people… the kind of broken heart that leads us to act… that we discover what it truly means to have compassion just like Christ has compassion.
There’s a cost to compassion.
But it’s a beautiful cost.
Abide not strive 