Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 2 Corinthians 1:3-9
“God puts you in hard moments when you cry out for his comfort so that your heart becomes tender to those near you who need the same comfort. Sometimes we are quicker to judge than to comfort.
This hit me not too long ago on the streets of Philadelphia, where I live. I walked by a young homeless person who was begging on the street, and I immediately thought, “I wonder what you did to get yourself here.” Criticism came more quickly to me than compassion. Hard-heartedness is more natural for us than I think we like to admit.
We’re that way with our children when we yell at them as if we’re shocked that they’re struggling with the same things we struggled with when we were their ages. We’re that way when we look down on the parents who can’t seem to control their children in restaurants or on those who have trouble paying their bills.
It is a function of the self-righteousness that, in some ways, still lives inside all of us. When we have named ourselves as strong, wise, capable, mature, and righteous, we tend to look down on those who have not achieved what we think we have. So, God humbles us. He puts us in situations where our weakness, foolishness, and immaturity are exposed.”
Paul David Tripp in New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 201.
As I explore compassion this year, I realize that it requires growth in humility, is coupled with suffering, and requires avoiding pitfalls. Think about it. Christ first humbled himself and suffered, which positions him to “the Father of compassion,” and steered clear of traps. We get to follow in His steps.
The key, as my friend John Cochran who sent me this piece reminded me, is to catch ourselves when our tendency is toward criticism. I am guilty of this. God help me. Perhaps you are too? It is easy to forget how long it took us to learn things. And so criticism, the enemy of compassion, prevails.
May it not be so with us today by God’s grace, by His Holy Spirit. Forgive us, Father, for the sin of criticism we ask in the name of Jesus, so that our dependency will be on your righteousness and not our own, and so our lives will lift others up rather than beat them down. Amen.