Compassion: A Loving Act

"... and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;​ but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing."

As I look back on a life of accomplishment I have to place it under the lens of the above verse from 1 Corinthians 13. Not that I want to... but I'm compelled to because I fear there will be the moment in eternity when I line up to stand before the Almighty God and will have to answer for my motives. So... all that stuff that I thought was so kind, so giving, so... impressive; it may be revealed that it wasn't so loving.

The way I see it we have different motivations, if you can call them that, which cause us to "do the right thing." First there is the motivation of PRIDE. If I do this or that then others will admire me and I will be looked upon with favor and perhaps I'll get a reward or asked to serve on a prestigious board or maybe... you get the idea. The next is OBLIGATION. Not that this is a real motivator. I'm not really motivated when I feel obligated but it is what often, if not most often, causes me to do something. Obligation looks like this; if I don't do... what, this, your (fill in the blank) then I'll have to (fill in the blank)! Often, obligation is the path of least resistance. Finally, there is the motivation of GUILT. Now this may be a strange one but it is a very real one. Worst yet, many organizations recognize guilt as a powerful way to get people to give or serve their cause. I don't know about you, but I don't like to feel guilty for not doing something so I may just do "it" so I don't have to think about how horrible I am for not having done it. Again, you get the point.

On those rare occasions when I actually do something completely out of love, I am amazed how little I expect in return, how I couldn't care less about who knows about it and how much peace I carry with me about the decision.

God is love. He is the source of our love. It was because of love He sent His Son to die on a cross. It's because of love that people will know His followers... it's LOVE that should be our motivation for being Christ like. Consequently, let us consider all we do as followers of Jesus to be like Jesus. He was compassionate when his followers were consumed. While the disciples were thinking of themselves, Jesus was reeling from the news his cousin John had just been murdered... Jesus looked out on the crowd and had compassion on them (Matthew 14) so he healed them and made sure they didn't go home hungry.

Compassion is a loving ACT. In other words, compassion is not compassion unless it does something and what we do, should be from the motivation of love; not pride, obligation or guilt. So, ask yourself: What have you done lately that boosted your ego, made someone else happy or caused you to walk away wishing you hadn't walked in? If you don't you may continue to do all the right things for the wrong reasons. Which brings up another question: What's wrong with doing the right things for the wrong reasons?

As you look at this blog you'll see a link to Compassion International where you can sponsor a child in an impoverished part of the world. I would never want you to do so for pride, obligation or guilt but if you do have love... and you wish to express that love, please consider sharing that love with a child.

When I first heard the 1 Corinthians 13 passage as a young boy I had a different impression of what the Apostle Paul was trying to convey because I originally heard the passage from the King James Version of the Bible and it uses a different word for love. It says, "If I... If I... If I... don't have CHARITY I am... I am... I am... nothing!"

Charity = Love

Comments

[victoria]

As I write this these lyrics to U2's Magnificent is resounding in the room, "Only love, only love can leave such a mark. Only love, only love can heal such a scar."

And all this reminds me of Francis Schaeffer's Mark of the Christian:

"Love — and the unity it attests to — is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father."

Equally convicting in this book is this poem:

Lament

by Evangeline Paterson

Weep, weep for those
Who do the work of the Lord
With a high look
And a proud heart.
Their voice is lifted up
In the streets, and their cry is heard.
The bruised reed they break
By their great strength, and the smoking flax
They trample.

Weep not for the quenched
(For their God will hear their cry
And the Lord will come to save them)
But weep, weep for the quenchers

For when the Day of the Lord
Is come, and the vales sing
And the hills clap their hands
And the light shines

Then their eyes shall be opened
On a waste place,
Smouldering,
The smoke of the flax bitter
In their nostrils,
Their feet pierced
By broken reed-stems . . .
Wood, hay, and stubble,
And no grass springing.
And all the birds flown.

Weep, weep for those
Who have made a desert
In the name of the Lord.

[victoria]

Oops. I meant to add a little bit more.

Ouch. I am being humbled as I search and realize my motivations for much. It is very revealing to me when things don't happen the way I envision them and I sadly realize my own motivations in these moments.

Of course I do have a question; as I struggle with love done out of obligation or expectation thinking that it's love and later realize that it's not pure love, and may even be pride or guilt too. Can God still work and be glorified even in our failings and impure motives? And if we realize and confess and ask forgiveness, will we still be called to stand and account for our failings and wrong motives?

[mereimage]

the poem is haunting and beautiful at the same time. much like our natural inclination to love. motives are like a breeze or tide against the shore line; changing and unpredictable when pure. When driven, they can be benign or destructive depending on intent. This is why it behooves us to consider them giving us deeper insight to our heart.

[Maxine]

I have been thinking of this for a while now, I know you all have moved on to something else...but I still think about the love = compassion = action. Sometimes I choose to do something because my heart is generally cold, not really in touch with the feelings. So I try to line up with something Jesus might ask me to do. And then I just choose to do it. I figure if I can obey, somehow this heart of mine will be compassionate and love richly. Sometimes in the midst of the action, I discover I really have nothing to offer, of true substance. So then it ends up being stinging to my heart. I can't give someone a job, I can't make their pain end, I can't fix something.....perhaps I just need to let it be a simple holding of the hand, a bowl of soup, a moment of conversation, regardless of my comfort level with any of these actions. And somehow, in the midst of it, the action, my heart breaks a little more...and eventually, perhaps one day, I will be that compassion to someone else, instead of my cold heart....Bit by bit...

[Edgar]

HOLA COMO ESTAN ME ENCANTARIA SABER UNA POCO MAS DE COMPASSION wonder_edgar@hotmail.com