Growing in Compassion
How do you think about your differences or physical limitations? Ask God to use them to grow in your compassion for others.
Wednesday is my favorite day to run errands. Why? My reason may surprise you. Wednesdays are often the day of the week designated to honor in-store Senior Citizen Discounts, so for a 32-year-old living in what feels like a 72-year-old's body...this is a wonderful day! I can walk at my normal (read that, slow) speed through the grocery store and actually pass a person or tow, rather than being mowed down by the after-work millennial crowd. I receive gracious smiles from wrinkled faces and overtly generous compliments from suspender-clad men while waiting in line to check out at Kohls.
But my favorite moments from these days are the times where I catch a twinkling eye and knowing nod as we pass by each other, each precariously leaning on the walking cane we grasp in our hand. I'll often be asked (particularly at the post-office and airport) where I managed to find such an attractive floral cane.
And it's in that moment that I find joy in my brokenness, chronic illness, in my disability, in pain because it becomes a bridge that connects my story to another person's story. My cane and my limp make me relatable and approachable...kind of like toting a baby around. Occasionally, it will solicit unwelcome or bizarre comments, but usually it provides an opportunity to connect with a stranger and show them compassion in a way that I simply could not have done otherwise.
The adjective "compassionate" is used to describe both God and Jesus in the Old and New Testaments. Second Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."
For over a decade, my mind had become accustomed to thinking of my physical differences as something that separated me from others instead o connecting me to them. How many opportunities did I probably miss because of that frame of mind? Author Henri Nouwen said, "Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish."
This past May my husband and I became licensed foster parents in Milwaukee County. This new journey has called me to a level of compassion that I simply would not be capable of without God. He is revealing to me how without His unending grace in my life, I could easily be the parent addicted to drugs or alcohol to numb my physical and mental pain. This revelation has grown my compassion to places of my h heart that I didn't know it could reach.
How do you think about your own differences? Let me encourage you to ask God to use them to bring comfort to others for the glory of His Kingdom! I can promise you that there is someone out there that God longs to connect you with because of the exact trial you are experiencing.
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