Compassion
This summer was full of trips, service projects, Bible studies, and lots of growth for our youth ministry! If you were to ask students what their highlights were, most of them would tell you that they are so grateful to have spent time with each other learning more about themselves and their relationship with God. I am entering my 5th year of ministry and am starting my 3rd year of ministry here at Broadway. As we enter into another school year and look back on many great memories made this summer, a word that continually comes back to me is, “compassion”.
Compassion calls us to sit with people in their pain and to seek to understand that person and the pain they are going through. While I was speaking one night at camp, I looked around the room at roughly 300 people in total and my heart melted. Just before I got up to speak, we had an activity for our students. We talked about how telling our story gives power to our testimony and that it brings light to the darkest parts of our life. The more we tell our story of God’s faithfulness in our life, the world as a whole, is made a much brighter place. Students and adults took time to write out their story and put it on the wall around our worship space. Some chose to illustrate their story, draw a timeline, just jot down a few bullet points of major events, and many more unique ways of telling their story.
I was struck by two things. 1) God created everyone to be unique. Not many of the papers around the room looked like an exact copy of the one next to it. And 2) teenagers go through a lot more then they let us know. I read stories about how some of them were struggling with thoughts of self harm and that they didn’t feel like they could talk to anyone about it. There were stories of death, pain, bullying, fear, and anything else you can imagine. I also saw stories about how God provided friends and family for kids who had never had either before. There were stories of adoption, victory over addiction, and students boldly proclaiming that even in the midst of the world around them, they found God to continue to be faithful. For those who wrote about not seeing that, the faithfulness of God showed up that week in that those students came forward and talked to adults and youth ministers at their churches and walked with them in that moment and continue to walk with them today.
Compassion calls us to sit with people in their pain and to understand them. It doesn’t call us to fix every problem that person has. Rather, it calls us to an intentional lifestyle of giving of ourselves so that others might encounter God’s presence in their lives. This heals not only our relationship with people, but our relationship with God.
Broadway, I implore you to walk in the way of compassion this school year. To seek to understand instead of only seeking to respond. As we are reminded by Paul in his writings to the Galatians, we are to bear one another’s burdens so that the Law of Christ might be fulfilled. Let us bear one another’s burdens with compassion!