Splagna

"When Jesus encountered people, he had spiritual vision to see the river of hurt and pain flowing beneath the surface of those who drink and drug to numb the anger or hide the loneliness. He saw beneath the surface of people who get entangled in degrading relationships because they fear being alone. He could see through the shield of those who shut everyone out, terrified of being hurt again. He understood why people work themselves to death trying to prove they are worth something. Jesus could see that beneath all our adult pretense and posturing, hidden under the sands of time, are just little boys and girls, let down and confused, hurt and angry, wounded and afraid, rebelling and running from the only One who can ultimately make it better."

Another excerpt from "Mud and the Mastetpiece," A new book coming out this week by John Burke. I love how John describes the kind of compassion Jesus has for people. 

"The word compassion in the original Greek language of the New Testament comes from the word splagna. It literally means “guts.” Remember from English class the term onomatopoeia—a word that sounds like its meaning? Splagna sounds like your guts, doesn’t it? Ever felt something so deeply it hit you in the gut? Maybe you heard tragic news, or someone hurt you deeply, something happened to a child or loved one, and you could feel it down deep inside, couldn’t you?"

We read in Matthew 9:36, "When He(Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a sherpard."

What it is saying here is that he felt it deep in his gut, I can imagine he felt it so much it hurt! So how do we respond when we feel that kind of hurt and pain for someone? Do we act as Jesus did? 

When we moved to Miami to start a church for people who don't like church we prayed and asked God to give us his eyes for people. We prayed that we would have the same compassion, or splagna as it may be, for people.

Will you pray with us? Will you pray for us?
E-mail us at remerge@hotmail.com to join our prayer team. Starting February 1st, we will be emailing daily prayer requests.