What Do We Do?

 As I was looking up Bible verses on compassion - google has a question that caught my attention: 

"What is compassion according to the Bible?" 

"To have compassion means to empathize with someone who is suffering and to feel compelled to reduce the suffering. It's a fuller, truer definition than feelings alone, and it's a very Biblical understanding."  

Not only to feel sorry for them but to want to help them not suffer as much. 

So while I was going through some of the google question suggestions another one caught my eye: 

What is the opposite of compassion? 

Sometimes in order to get a fully understanding of a word it is good to dig a little deeper. 

Opposite of "Compassion" 

• Indifference 
• Heartlessness 

Similar words: 

• sympathy 
• empathy
• understanding
• care
• concern
• brotherly love

"Be kind and compassionate to one another., forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." 

Ephesians 4:32 

"Finally, all of you, be like minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 

1 Peter 3:8

There it is again and again- God calling us to be compassionate to one another! 

What do we do when others are suffering -

 do we look the other way?

 do we do what we can to help them? 

do we try to brighten their day? 

do we ignore them and get on with our own lives? 

Could This Be The Word Of The Year?

One day as I was working on cleaning up my garden area - I realized that this tornado had really been traumatic for me. Being woken up to the scary noises and the power going out and trying to figure out what was going on, caused me to start shaking and it lasted for about 20 minutes. My husband got a big flashlight and he was trying to see what damage he could see.

We turned on the ham radio to the weather net and listened to the reports of things going on and at first what I thought was that there was another tornado headed our direction - and that added to my fear. 

There has been a lot of clean up. Yes- It could have been so much worse, but that does NOT diminish the facts that it is still a traumatic experience. Something so powerful can in seconds, without warning rip through and cause so much damage and you are powerless.

I now know that I will be someone who can sympathize with those who likewise go through a tornado. I have been sad for them in the past, of course, but once you have been through it - you can truly have compassion.

So will "Compassion" be my word for the year? I don't know but I do believe it will at least be the word for the month! 

Are We Following His Instructions?

 The tornado that went through our property at 10:58 Sunday night has provoked alot of thoughts and feelings and I feel like I need to share. Maybe this is a message you need to hear. I don't know. I just know that I have been prompted to share. I am guessing it'll be over several different posts because there has been so many things on my mind. 

The tornado ripped through my garden- the space I have been working on for the last several years to make it a little bit of paradise here on earth. We don't travel much - I much prefer to stay home. And decided instead of spending money on trips away from home home why not spend that money on my own property to make it a place to enjoy. That way I can have mini vacations when I walk around my garden and work there or just to enjoy it. And when the fence panels rip through your hard work and damage things, damaging and killing plants along the way, it is traumatic. And when I look out there or go out there- many times I am overwhelmed with emotions. 

One of my clothes line's posts had the tee part busted off- by flying fence panels. So this week while pulling things out of the wash machine- I was reminded - No you can't go hang that up. And it made me sad. Especially since I found 2 nice towels, a hand towel and a wash cloth at the thrift store for a pretty good deal- SO I had extra towels that I would have loved to have hung up to dry, but no.... : ( 

There have been many emotional moments over last week. I try not to dwell on the sadness. I try to start praising God that there wasn't more damage done. Praising God can change your attitude and it has really helped because I am experiencing less and less sad moments. 

All of this has reminded me of a verse in the Bible: 

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

What really stands out to me and the main reason I chose the NIV to share is ~ 
"the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort" and then the part "SO that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." 

God has compassion for us and calls us to be compassionate with others who are suffering. Are you following His instructions? Just something for us to think about today. 

 "God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters/" 

John Henry Jowett 

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