Good morning…
“Mom, don’t you get drained with so many hurting people depending on you?” asked our daughter Tessa, as she saw me texting and talking with a handful of people going through some really hard things.
“No, actually, it is a great privilege to walk closely with people through the challenges of life,” I heard myself say. “It energizes me and energizes them to have honest, intimate conversations in the midst of a season of suffering.”
This mutually beneficial blessing is described well in an article I recently read, an article entitled The Compassionate Heart by Benjamin James Freeman.
“The transformative power of compassion lies in its ability to replenish rather than deplete,” writes Freeman. “Many people fear that being compassionate will exhaust them, especially when faced with the immense suffering of the world. But true compassion, rooted in awareness and presence, has the opposite effect. It energizes, heals, and creates a profound sense of purpose.”
“A heart that learns to hold its own pain with tenderness becomes a heart that can hold the world’s pain without breaking,” he concludes.
For me, the key to compassion is staying rooted in the awareness and the presence of the God who never lets us go. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! (Acts 17:27, MSG). As we trust this eternal truth, we are replenished wherever we are.
For though I am a long way away from you in body, in spirit I am by your side… Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so go on living in him—in simple faith. Grow out of him as a plant grows out of the soil it is planted in, becoming more and more sure of the faith as you were taught it, and your lives will overflow with joy and thankfulness (Colossians 2:6-7, PHILLIPS).
…Sue…
