Compassion

I have been thinking a lot about what compassion really means. It's a word we hear a lot, but I haven't really pondered its meaning or why it's important. I recently read a book that talked about  being compassionate as being one of the most important traits a person could have- not for everyone else but for yourself. Maybe a week a later, I started reading another book that focused on David and all of his troubles from Goliath to Saul and after. That man made a lot of mistakes! He would be so close to God and thinking so clearly and receiving so many blessings; then, he would screw it up big time! Over and over, he would come to God, rely on God, and receive help from God. Inevitably, he would stray off on his own course and end up in misery. Much like most of us, his intentions were usually pretty good, just a little out of focus because we forget what to focus on from day to day.

So, how does compassion play into the story of David? David often did exactly what all children of good parents do. He copied the parent's behavior. Despite David's rather consistent mistakes, he still wanted to please his Father, God. So, he would copy God. When David made mistakes, no matter how crazy they were, God always showed David compassion. Real compassion. The "I love you anyway. I hurt to know that you are hurting. Let me hold you and make it better. I genuinely feel bad for you "-kind of compassion. David followed that model. Saul chased David down for years. He worked to make David miserable, but when David had opportunities to kill Saul, he chose compassion instead.

This week at school, I had given a poetry assignment. The students had to create poetry books that consisted of 16 different poems. Each poem had a specific rhyme scheme or theme. One of the poems was to be about "My Enemy". I told the kids they could write about someone that was causing them problems, a class that was driving them crazy, whatever they could consider to be something that was an enemy for them right now. I instructed they could not use names :) One girl wrote a poem that was filled with anger and agitation, and she dropped the name of this "enemy" at the end. I read the rough draft. I gave it back to her. She seemed quite proud of herself, but when I made no verbal response to the poem, her face changed a little. The next day, she asked me about the poem. I ask her how it made her feel. She said that at first it felt good to get that stuff off her chest, but then later that night, she felt just as bad as she had before. She explained why she didn't like this girl. I asked her if she had any idea why this other student would cause these problems for her. She had some ideas. We talked awhile about this, and she came to the conclusion that it would be better to write about math class. She decided that even though this other girl had hurt her, she really didn't need to say hurtful things about her or to her. She decided that this other girl had "stuff" going on that was causing her to act the way she was. She decided to be compassionate. She came to the conclusion that being compassionate and forgiving made her feel better than being vindictive and malicious with her words.

It's valuable lesson. When we feel bad, we are so quick to take it out on others or on the people who have made us feel rotten. When we do, we only feel better for a little bit, and then the yucky feelings come back. When we show compassion to others, the good feelings stay, and we can be certain that we are doing something that pleases God. Anything that we can do to please God is always a step toward increasing our faith. :)