compassion

Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman

When among the suffering we find that they do not so much need the skills of our hands or the knowledge of our minds as they do the compassion of our hearts. It is as if the suffering person extends an invitation to us saying ‘Before you do anything FOR me, please come alongside me. Enter into communion with me so that you can BE with me in my pain. Walk alongside me as my friend and companion. 
 ~ Trevor Hudson

I love this quote because I think it holds a very important truth for us: Compassion is ultimately about presence. An outflow of compassion can be giving of our finances, resources and skills, but at the end of the day while those things might help display a compassionate heart, compassion is really about relationship. Compassion is about coming alongside someone in the midst of their pain and struggle and just being there. Pain involves discomfort. Entering into someone else’s struggle IS uncomfortable. But, it’s how life is meant to be lived. It’s how we know that love is genuine…we intentionally enter the murkiness of someone’s situation because that’s what love does. It gets dirty. It is willing to suffer with someone. I know this is something I have not always been good at in the past.


I don’t know about you, but my instinct is to fix whatever situation is causing pain. And  sometimes, we CAN do things that help fix a problem, But I have come to realize that there are just some situations that I can’t fix (yeah, I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes!). There are many difficult circumstances in which I can’t offer anyone anything but myself. They want to know that someone cares. More than they want us to DO something for them, they want us to BE with them.

As we are getting so close to moving to Miami and our lives are so busy here, I feel bad that I can't seem to find the time to be with those who seem to still need my presence here. We see in the Bible and the ministry of Jesus that this is what drew people to Him. He had compassion and was present with them. Pray that our compassion comes out of coming along side of them and being present with them and that we aren't distracted by how we think we can fix them. Pray that we remember that mostly we need to be there for them, that we need to be building relationships with them.