Stay Salty: Compassion

Part two in my "Stay Salty" series. What are the distinguishing marks that will make us salt and light in our culture today? What will both set us apart and make us attractive?

Photo by Tom Morbey on Unsplash

What are the distinguishing marks that will make us salt and light in our culture today? What are the things that we will bring to the table that can't be duplicated or manufactured in a worldly context? What will both set us apart and make us attractive?

I’ve been considering these questions lately and have a few thoughts. Four, in fact. I’m going to be unpacking each of these “salt distinctives” over the next few articles. They are:

1. WISDOM FROM ABOVE

2. COMPASSION

3. PEACE-MAKING

4. TRUE LOVE

Let’s look at the second one, COMPASSION.

In 2015, I went through a significant health episode that required major surgery. I had been in the hospital before, at times for extended stays. But this procedure was significant, involving a large incision across my abdomen.

I’ll never forget waking up and seeing the staples crossing my body. Or dealing with the pain and dignity-invading aftercare processes. Or just trying to get back on my feet again. Or finally reaching a point when I didn’t wonder, “Will my body split in half if I push too hard?” while working out at the gym.

I was forty when it happened. The experience provided me with a new level of understanding the struggles of others. Any time someone is dealing with poor health, life gets interrupted. As a pastor, I’d visited countless hospital rooms and homes, witnessing pain and praying for healing. But my own experience took me into a deeper compassion than ever before.

Compassion is not always easy. It’s difficult when we can’t identify with another person. It becomes a real challenge if the “other” is someone whose appearance and/or behavior seems off-putting or even abhorrent to us.

Compassion will be a major challenge to Kingdom Christians in the days ahead. As the Enemy continues to lead our society into deeper deception, the darkness of his Kingdom becomes more and more apparent.

People are being trained to transgress boundaries. Everything from facial tattoos to gender-fluid clothing to drag queen story hour presents a challenge to steward a heart of compassion for the “other.” As the things we find tragic are treated like trophies, it becomes all to easy to let our hearts harden.

But this is precisely the times that require us to remain tender-hearted towards people. I don’t know too many individuals who have been won over with judgment, harsh rebuke or even angry finger pointing.

In Romans 2, Paul writes:

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things…. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Compassion flows when we’re closely connected to the heart of the Father. When we understand His perfect, unwavering love. When we have experienced His patience with us even as we struggle to overcome areas of sin or deception in our own lives.

When we let our Father compassionately walk with us through growth, we come to understand just how good and kind He really is. Such experiences bring us to a place where loving the “other” is not an effort in self-improvement. It is the outflow of the Love that dwells within us.

Kingdom Christians, who travel a grace-based journey of growth rather than law-based performance, are desperately needed today. It doesn’t require us to surrender biblical morality or compromise the truth. It simply means understanding the true nature of things. The people who we might, in the flesh, find objectionable are precious souls, trapped in Satan’s Kingdom. They are enslaved, deceived and degraded by an Enemy who has been at this a long time.

I’m praying that we’ll be a people marked by supernatural compassion.