Showing Compassion to the World

April 29

Showing Christ-like Compassion to the World

Today is Compassion Sunday, set aside by an organization called Compassion International to find sponsors for impoverished children around the globe. With the funds given by the donors, these children can attend school.

Compassion is a powerful thing. Contrary to popular perception, it isn’t simply feeling sorry for someone. True, Jesus-like compassion reaches far beyond that. It looks, loves, and takes action.

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier… And he said, “Young man, I say to you, ‘arise.’” (Luke 7:13-14)

In her book Daring to Hope, Katie Davis Majors shares this quote by Henri Nouwen:

[Compassion] is not a bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below… On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there.[I]

That’s exactly what Jesus did for us.

If sponsoring a child through Compassion International interests you, you can find out more here.

Go live his love,

Bethany J.

[i] Henri J. M. Nouwen, Donald P. McNeill, and Douglas A. Morrison, Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life, rev. ed. (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 25.