December 6-Compassion 

Happy Wednesday. How’s your week going? I leaned an important lesson yesterday—the difference between sympathy and compassion. If someone has sympathy for you, they feel sorry for you, but if they have compassion, they do something about it—they become inconvenienced for you. When you are stuck and need a ride, someone may feel bad for you, but if they have compassion, they take the time to get in the car and come and get you. 


In Luke 10, when the young lawyer came to Jesus asking him what he needed to do to enter heaven, Jesus asked him what the scriptures said. 


“He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭10:27-28‬ ‭NIV‬‬


But that wasn’t enough for the lawyer and he pushed Jesus, probably because he knew WHAT to do, he just didn’t want to DO it. So Jesus told him the story of the Good Samaritan, who had compassion. The Good Samaritan who was inconvenienced for his neighbor. The Good Samaritan who choose to “Go and Do” as the scripture told him because he first had chosen to love the Lord his God with all his heart and all his mind and all his soul. It’s amazing how when our horizontal relationship with the Father is in line, our vertical ones seem to just fall right into place. But...the relationship with the Father has to come first—trying to find ourselves and purpose through others will not fix our relationship with God—it has to be in the right order. 


Today, love the Lord your God with everything you have. And then, practice compassion. 


Love you dear friend,

Pam 


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