By Nyariay Kic
Compassion, who is she? Whom to even express her to and what does it take to be compassionate or when to stop being compassionate? Are you seeking answers, I got you, let’s explore.
The Oxford translation reveals to us that compassion means a deep awareness of and sympathy for another’s suffering. Yes, that might be true. However, beneath the surface, at a level of an individual understanding, I would say compassion is a soul-satisfying yearning need, that when you reject to express her, the inner you would automatically be in an episode of unrest. A feeling of guilt, disgust and shame immediately rent-free over the mind. When was the last time you had such feelings of guilt, disgust and shame, then that was the moment you failed to be compassionate, not because you lack compassion, not at all! Yet simply because you opted to stand in her way and refused to express her freely while in the realm.
Well, that’s okay, better late than never, now that you have gotten to know her on a different level and what the precautions are to resist her, you need to be aware of whom to express her to. To my family? Yeah of course. To my friends? Most assuredly. But aren’t we forgetting one category? The ones you get to meet once and maybe the ones we refer to as strangers. “I was naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” Can the creator and King of the universe lack anything, fall sick or be imprisoned? Of course not. He is the Alpha and Omega, and so nothing is beyond His reach. Yet he declares in Matthew 25:3G that he was naked, sick and in prison. He abideth in His children and so their problems are His. So when you show compassion, you are not just simply avoiding the tensions of the mind like we saw earlier guilt, disgust and shame, but also lending to the Lord.
Proverbs 19:17 reveals, “He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord.” I was walking along the airport street one day on my way back home, and I couldn’t feel my heartbeat for some seconds when I saw a fellow poor citizen hungrily gathering his lunch from a trash can. Imagine this was a doorstep into a local restaurant, just like always, no one bothered. Not even the fellow Junubin workers. All they did was move skelter and helter attending to their beloved customers. I wrestled with pity as I watched this poor man sitting and eating quietly. How long the food took in the trash or what health barrier it would present was now only the Lord’s to do with since He is the only one who is certified with compassion undeniable to all, even to the poor customers and sinners like we.
Yes, His compassion is undeniable, He gets hurt too, forgotten and rejected, but He never stops showing His compassion. What an amazing Lord we have, can such a personality be found today? Today we simply walk away, “Let them also feel what I felt,” has become our escape root against showing compassion. How then can we be unique: a unique individual, people, or nation? “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Don’t even the publicans do the same? The Lord urges us in Matthew 5:4G for us to be unique, this should become our code distinguishing us from the many.
A third of our conflicts as Junubin are fueled by lack of compassion. Compassion knows no tribe, race or language. She just needs you to simply let her expression freely take over. Be kind to all, even to your enemy if you do have one. Regarding me I would say I have no enemies, but brothers and sisters who need to be redirected with the right thesis to understanding my love, care and peace for them. Perhaps as a nation blessed with a motherland, we wouldn’t have exchanged bullets with our own kin if we had compassion, our own sisters wouldn’t have been widowed by us, nor our children recklessly orphaned and left roaming in the streets, or our neighbours laughing at us while we ruin our own progress unknowingly.
I don’t know who has made it this far, but I want to assure you that today is your rightful moment to renew your mind and commit your heart to expressing undeniable compassion. Be unique just like your creator because you are wonderfully and beautifully made.