So What? Part Two: Emotionally Entangled

I've tried to wrap my mind around it every which way, but I can't come up with a way to have compassion without emotional entanglement.  Compassion literally means to 'suffer with' someone.  If you take emotion out of it, you can't feel anything with anyone at all.  It just can't be done.

Things would be so much easier if compassion were only an option, just a preference for those naturally bent that way--but it's not.  "So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion. . ." (Colossians 3:12)  Compassion is to be our way of life, not optional equipment.

The second half of compassion is the desire to do something to alleviate the suffering you first feel with someone, but most of us rarely go that far.  It only stands to reason that the second half should follow naturally if we truly suffered with someone, so I'm beginning to wonder if the reason we often don't express the second part of compassion is that we haven't let ourselves do the first half.  We don't want to know, and we don't allow ourselves to be informed, so we won't make that emotional connection.  Maybe we're afraid to cry.  Maybe we're afraid of what it will cost us.

But the question really is, "What will my lack of emotional entanglement cost someone else?"

If, like Galatians 2:20 says, we no longer live, but Christ lives in us, then the compassionate heart of Jesus should be clearly evident in us.  Jesus wept with Lazarus' sisters and wept over Jerusalem, and He was moved with compassion to heal sick people (Matthew 14:14), to give sight to blind men (Matthew 20:34), to touch and cleanse a leper (Mark 1:41), to teach distressed and dispirited people (Matthew 9:36, Mark 6:34), to feed hungry people so they wouldn't faint on the way home (Matthew 15:32), and to resurrect a widow's son and give him back to his mama (Luke 7:12-15).  He let Himself feel with the people and be moved to act on their behalf.

I see in the example of Jesus that He means for us to get emotionally entangled; it's right to feel things so deeply that it moves us to tears and to action.  When questioned by the religious elite over His time spent with the needy and despised, He said, ". . . Go and learn what this means:  'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' .  . ." (Matthew 9:13)

Breaking the cycle of apathy begins with opening our eyes, and it continues with opening our hearts.

Oh, Lord, let our hearts be broken over the things that break Your heart.

Please, Lord, make us feel what You feel, weep over what makes You weep, and move us to make a difference in Your name.