In a recent Huffington Post article that I read, I was unpleasantly surprised by the results of a new study that stated that atheists and agnostics are more driven by compassion to help others than religious people. Being a somewhat religious person, I took this finding with a grain of salt and just wrote it off as "That's not me. I'm all about social justice and uplifting the people." The findings of this study are quite compelling. If the body of Christ is less apt to be moved with compassion, then why are we here? In the King James Version of the Bible, in most instances before Jesus performed a miraculous healing or an everyday random act, that action was preceded by these words. "And Jesus (he) was moved with compassion."
If we look at the word compassion, it is a compound word rooted in Latin. When we speak of passion, we tend to think of something that people are extremely excited or fervent about. However, passion actually means sufferings, endurance and agony. According to Bishop Vashti McKenzie, if you are passionate about something, you will endure, persevere and suffer for the thing which empassions you. If you are compassionate, that in turn means that you are willing to suffer and endure with others as they are at a valley moment of contention and strife in their lives.
Beloved, in all that is going on in and around us, remember that we are all made in the image of God Almighty, and that is an irreversible occurrence. As you go about your day today, remember that as we have been called to model the life of Christ, that he was moved with compassion to help those who could not help themselves, to love the unlovable, to embrace the sinner and reach out to the least of these living and walking among us. Have you been moved with compassion today?
Faithfully,
Karsten
