Matthew 9:35-38
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Have you ever looked at a difficult situation and thought, "someone has to do something about that?" If so, you have been moved by sympathy. Sympathy is a strong feeling of pity we feel when we see someone else's misfortune. But sympathy typically stops at a feeling and rarely translates into action. We don't ever read of Jesus feeling sympathy, but we repeatedly read of Jesus having compassion.
In this book, “Live. Love. Lead,†Brian Houston says the following about compassion, “Not one time do we ever find Jesus being moved with sympathy; but every time He was moved with compassion something powerful was about to happen—a miracle was on its way. That’s because sympathy identifies with the problem, but compassion gets up, looks up, and says, ‘I need to do something about this.’â€
Compassion ignites us into action; it takes on the responsibility of doing something about the challenge which has been identified. Maybe it's time for you to stop looking around and start looking in the mirror. What are YOU going to do about it?!
What ignites your Compassion?
Which field have you been created to Harvest in?
Why have you been waiting for others to do what MOVES YOU?!
