Dictionary.com defines compassion as "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering." Let's think about that for a moment. Deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune. That describes almost everyone I know in some way or another. I have a friend that has a worse back than I do (and that's hard for me to imagine). I have a close relative that nearly went off the deep end when my father passed away. Naturally I sympathized with them - but is that enough? I don't think it meets the entire definition.
There is a whole other half to the definition of compassion, and that is the strong desire to alleviate that suffering. I can feel sorry for a street person and keep right on walking, thinking to myself, what a pity someone doesn't stop to help. Someone should! Someone can. Me.
The best example of this happened to me a little over 10 years ago. I was down in our city's market area with a friend and we happened by a lady in a doorway that was clearly suffering. Her clothes were dirty, her hair was stringy, she smelled badly, and the look on her face was one of total dejection. Both my friend and I were moved and wanted to alleviate her suffering to the extent we could, so we stopped, and my friend asked the lady if she was okay. I asked if there was anything we could do. The lady politely declined our offer of help, and my friend and I went on our way sadly. The next day, my friend and I were downtown again, this time as part of a formal church outreach, and we came across that same lady. I have to pause here, because I'm becoming emotional at the visceral memories this evokes.
The lady my friend and I had met the day previously was obviously the worse for wear. She had obviously been beaten badly. She was wearing the same clothes, but they were spattered with blood (I assume her own). She was lying on the street, in an out-of-sight corner. The blood had dried, so I assume her attacker was long gone, but she was in obvious medical distress, with congealed blood on the ground beneath her. She was conscious, and - get this - still didn't want help! I can say that the two of us that found her were nonplussed. We also weren't taking no for an answer this time. My friend ran off to find a phone to call for an ambulance, and when she got back, I had gotten out of the lady that she was hungry (in fact she hadn't eaten in a couple of days), and I ran off to a McDonalds to get some food. We HAD to do SOMETHING! It was an OVERPOWERING desire to alleviate her suffering. I got back before the ambulance, and we waited with her until they came, and they took her to the hospital. In all that excitement, I forgot one very important detail - to ask for her name!
I still don't think I'm all that compassionate, but I know for certain I did what I was supposed to do, because that what Jesus did in Matthew 14:14. The Bible instructs us to have compassion on others, to feel deep sympathy and sorrow with those afflicted with suffering, and then to have a strong desire to help alleviate that suffering. May we be His servants and follow His example.
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"You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
-John 8:32 (NASB)
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