Compassion - Part Three
There's a word that has been put at the forefront of my every day. It has become my anthem. It has become the word that is whispered in the dark of night. It is the word that is shouted to me above the loudness of the untruths running through my head. It is a word that is teaching me so much. It is a word that has stripped me of everything. It is a word that is modelled by our God. It is a word that we need to clothe ourselves with over and over. It is the word of my heart.
Compassion.
Definition: "sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others." This definition doesn't quite nail for me but the words that proceed it work much better for me - feeling, empathy, understanding, tender-heartedness, warm-heartedness, soft-heartedness, humaneness, sensitivity, gentleness, mercy, warmth, love.
I've been reading the book "It's Not Supposed to Be this Way" by Lysa Terkeurst. If you don't know her story or her ministry Proverbs31 then you definitely need to check it out. I could basically quote the whole book here but I'll just say go and buy the book.
In her book she talks about the fall of man. In Genesis 3 the epic chapter in which Eve is deceived by the serpent she takes the fruit of the tree they were not to eat from, and she gives it to her husband Adam. Their eyes are opened to their nakedness. In their shame, they hid themselves from God and made for themselves fig leaf garments. God comes to the garden looking for his beloved children. He seeks them. In Lysa's book she writes this,
" There was tenderness in God's actions; therefore, I believe there was tenderness in His tone. Adam and Eve were afraid. That's why they hid from God, and that's why they grabbed fig leaves and covered themselves. But instead of blaming and shaming them, God traded their fig leaves for fur. He handmade garments of skin to cover them. God knew that day in the garden their sin would be covered by the blood of an animal, but one day it would be the blood of His Son dripping from the cross."
God shows compassion to the children he loves so much. Empathy. Feeling. Mercy. Tender-heartedness. David also experienced God's compassion. "But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." Psalm 86:15 "I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 89:1
At the very beginning God created man. In the first account of creation found in Genesis 1 it reads, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." And then again in Genesis 2 it reads, "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." We are his beloved. His very good creation. If God so loves us, that he breathed his own breathe into our very beings would it not also be true that he seeks to show us his compassion?
In the New Testament Paul writes to the Colossians, "Put on then, as God's chosen ones holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, you also must forgive." I absolutely love how Eugene Petersen paraphrases it in The Message, "So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you."
And my favourite part, "And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all purpose garment. Never be without it."
I wear clothing every day. You wear clothing every day. Wouldn't be amazing if we started our day by audibly saying, "Okay today I'm putting on compassion, I'm going to wear it everywhere I go" or "Love, love is what I want to wear today and every day because its my best, my very most treasured piece of clothing and I cannot go a day without it!" This my friends, is what we need most in this world. Love. Compassion. Soft-Heartedness. God fashioned the compassion clothes in the garden for his beloved children. The baby was found clothed in compassion in the manger. The linen cloths were lying in the empty tomb. Jesus is our compassion clothes. We need to wear his love and his mercy each and every day.
In this journey of alcoholism and of our re-building year, I have chosen to put on the clothes of love and compassion each day. Some days the clothes fit better and nicer, other days they don't seem to fit on so well. Day by day, I'm learning what it means to wear these clothes. In the last number of weeks and few months, and even year, we have been embraced by people who have chosen to put on their compassion clothes. They have walked with us, crawled with us, laid on the floor with us, wept with us, rejoiced with us, they have been Jesus to us. Because of the way that we have been shown the love of Christ, its opened my own eyes to the people in my life and even people who very different than me. Everyone needs compassion. Everyone needs to be shown the love that God has so costly given to us.
Lysa speaks it so well on page 83 of her book. "Who do you want standing near you in those moments dripping with disappointment and saturated with sorrow? I can assure you it isn't the people who don't know the whole story, draped in gold-plated pride with mouths eager to spill commentary like, "Here's what you did wrong. I would never have allowed myself to get in this position. If only you would have..." Nope. It's those clothed with garments of understanding. It's from a heart of compassion that kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience naturally flow." And then she asks this question of her readers, "When people see us, do they see the compassion of their Creator?"
And let me say, acceptance and compassion are very different things. Our journey continues to be clothed in compassion. My husbands desire to drink has been taken from him, by a good and gracious God. He (and we) are currently feeling a freedom and a lightness that only comes from a good God, a God that continues to fashion new clothes for us. For years I accepted the hard road we were walking as to be the only road we were able to walk down. I passed judgements. I passed shame. I passed guilt. I also know that my husbands actions are not because of me or what I could have, should have, would have done. I am not responsible for them. But I am responsible for not choosing to wear love and compassion. Our human tendency is to divert to judgements, comfortability, blindness and protection. This is not who we were created to be.
I'm learning that this season of uncertainty, uncomfortableness and curiosity, that my very being is strengthened. I am strong. I am loved. I am being molded. I am being clothed. Over and over. I'm learning that out of my compassion flows my heart. My heart for kindness. For love. For mercy.
Compassion.
Definition: "sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others." This definition doesn't quite nail for me but the words that proceed it work much better for me - feeling, empathy, understanding, tender-heartedness, warm-heartedness, soft-heartedness, humaneness, sensitivity, gentleness, mercy, warmth, love.
I've been reading the book "It's Not Supposed to Be this Way" by Lysa Terkeurst. If you don't know her story or her ministry Proverbs31 then you definitely need to check it out. I could basically quote the whole book here but I'll just say go and buy the book.
In her book she talks about the fall of man. In Genesis 3 the epic chapter in which Eve is deceived by the serpent she takes the fruit of the tree they were not to eat from, and she gives it to her husband Adam. Their eyes are opened to their nakedness. In their shame, they hid themselves from God and made for themselves fig leaf garments. God comes to the garden looking for his beloved children. He seeks them. In Lysa's book she writes this,
" There was tenderness in God's actions; therefore, I believe there was tenderness in His tone. Adam and Eve were afraid. That's why they hid from God, and that's why they grabbed fig leaves and covered themselves. But instead of blaming and shaming them, God traded their fig leaves for fur. He handmade garments of skin to cover them. God knew that day in the garden their sin would be covered by the blood of an animal, but one day it would be the blood of His Son dripping from the cross."
God shows compassion to the children he loves so much. Empathy. Feeling. Mercy. Tender-heartedness. David also experienced God's compassion. "But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." Psalm 86:15 "I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 89:1
At the very beginning God created man. In the first account of creation found in Genesis 1 it reads, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." And then again in Genesis 2 it reads, "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." We are his beloved. His very good creation. If God so loves us, that he breathed his own breathe into our very beings would it not also be true that he seeks to show us his compassion?
In the New Testament Paul writes to the Colossians, "Put on then, as God's chosen ones holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, you also must forgive." I absolutely love how Eugene Petersen paraphrases it in The Message, "So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you."
And my favourite part, "And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all purpose garment. Never be without it."
I wear clothing every day. You wear clothing every day. Wouldn't be amazing if we started our day by audibly saying, "Okay today I'm putting on compassion, I'm going to wear it everywhere I go" or "Love, love is what I want to wear today and every day because its my best, my very most treasured piece of clothing and I cannot go a day without it!" This my friends, is what we need most in this world. Love. Compassion. Soft-Heartedness. God fashioned the compassion clothes in the garden for his beloved children. The baby was found clothed in compassion in the manger. The linen cloths were lying in the empty tomb. Jesus is our compassion clothes. We need to wear his love and his mercy each and every day.
In this journey of alcoholism and of our re-building year, I have chosen to put on the clothes of love and compassion each day. Some days the clothes fit better and nicer, other days they don't seem to fit on so well. Day by day, I'm learning what it means to wear these clothes. In the last number of weeks and few months, and even year, we have been embraced by people who have chosen to put on their compassion clothes. They have walked with us, crawled with us, laid on the floor with us, wept with us, rejoiced with us, they have been Jesus to us. Because of the way that we have been shown the love of Christ, its opened my own eyes to the people in my life and even people who very different than me. Everyone needs compassion. Everyone needs to be shown the love that God has so costly given to us.
Lysa speaks it so well on page 83 of her book. "Who do you want standing near you in those moments dripping with disappointment and saturated with sorrow? I can assure you it isn't the people who don't know the whole story, draped in gold-plated pride with mouths eager to spill commentary like, "Here's what you did wrong. I would never have allowed myself to get in this position. If only you would have..." Nope. It's those clothed with garments of understanding. It's from a heart of compassion that kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience naturally flow." And then she asks this question of her readers, "When people see us, do they see the compassion of their Creator?"
And let me say, acceptance and compassion are very different things. Our journey continues to be clothed in compassion. My husbands desire to drink has been taken from him, by a good and gracious God. He (and we) are currently feeling a freedom and a lightness that only comes from a good God, a God that continues to fashion new clothes for us. For years I accepted the hard road we were walking as to be the only road we were able to walk down. I passed judgements. I passed shame. I passed guilt. I also know that my husbands actions are not because of me or what I could have, should have, would have done. I am not responsible for them. But I am responsible for not choosing to wear love and compassion. Our human tendency is to divert to judgements, comfortability, blindness and protection. This is not who we were created to be.
I'm learning that this season of uncertainty, uncomfortableness and curiosity, that my very being is strengthened. I am strong. I am loved. I am being molded. I am being clothed. Over and over. I'm learning that out of my compassion flows my heart. My heart for kindness. For love. For mercy.
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