"When the people see that you truly love them, they will hear anything from you...Oh therefore, see that you feel a tender love for your people in your hearts, and let them perceive it in your speech and conduct. Let them see that you spend and are spent for their sakes."
-Richard Baxter
Oh, because it's what He did for us.
Do we not feel compassion, on those who have nothing to live for? Who live but to die?
I don't, sometimes. On campus, a boy openly mocks my beliefs and remarks that he'd like to burn down Churches full of Christians. A professor, in response to learning I believe, plays a video on how Christians need to accept science and reality. At work, a boss revels in his position of power and uses it to put the rest of us down. A coworker belittles me. A customer is impatient and swears at me, and throws change at me, because the credit card machine isn't working.
I don't feel compassion. I want them all to be hit by a train.
But He felt it upon me. And He bled for me. And He makes me feel it for others. And then I see. And then I do things I wouldn't have done.
The boy who wants to burn down churches of Christians, is brutally beaten by his father, and needs someone to listen to him. The teacher who ridicules me for faith, is actually starved for soul freedom. The customer who yells at you, needs to be prayed for.
And the boy who wanted to burn down Churches is going to Church now. The teacher who ridiculed me, listened to me talk about Christ for so long that I missed my bus. And the customers who give me the worst time get payed for the most.
We can't truly love them all by ourselves. We just can't. We want them all to be hit by trains. But He loved us. And he showed it. And not only can He change our hearts, but move our actions. We just have to go to Him.
So whoever you hate today, bring it to Him. Pray out your hatred. Pray for forgiveness. Pray for love. Pray for life-altering actions that tell this world of unspeakable love.
Because when you listen to and share Christ with the boy who mocks you, when you respect the teacher who belittles you, when others learn that you pray for the customers who curse at you... they can't believe it.
And they just might start to believe what they once couldn't.
Compassion costs. It is easy enough to argue, criticize and condemn, but redemption is costly, and comfort draws from the deep. Brains can argue, but It takes heart to comfort.
-Sameul Chadwick
-Photo 'Enchanted Path' from Pinterest.
