Ramblings...or Where is My Compassion?

One thing you may not see in all the glossy ads beckoning you to come to "Paradise" are the homeless of Hawaii. They inhabit the parks and bridges. They seek shelter from the hot sun under the banyan trees and underpasses of the freeway. With their burgeoning shopping carts, tarps, shabby clothing, and their downcast countenance they are not hard to miss.

At first, it was easy for me to dismiss them. How hard can it be to be homeless in Hawaii? It's always warm here. They chose that lifestyle didn't they? They live like that because they want to. They are probably on drugs or they are drunks. You reap what you sow, right?

My seven year old daughter though, is not as jaded as I am. She is moved with compassion for these people. Why mama, do they live in the park? Where is their family? How do they eat? Do they get cold? Why are they so sad? I want to buy them a blanket.

We gave her the typical answers: if you don't work, you don't eat. You reap what you sow. They are drunkards. They want to live like that. We can give them money, but they will only buy drugs. Look the other way, please. Do not stare!

Compassion is defined as a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is suffering, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. In the New Testament, at least 12 times compassion is taught or referenced to. We know that Jesus often, "was moved with compassion."
So, what is it to me? What is my responsibility toward those who suffer? I should have never asked the Lord those questions because He has plenty to say about it!

Hebrews 13:1-3 says,

Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them:and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

I John 3:17-18

But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue;but in deed and in truth.

Psalm 41:1-3

Blessed(oh how happy) is he that considereth the poor:the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive;andhe shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strenghten (comfort or refresh) him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.

Wow! What a promise we have there. But something the Lord showed me, through my dear hubby, is that at one point we all were homeless. We were without hope. We filled our "shopping carts" with what we could find from the trash. But Jesus was moved with compassion for us. He alleviated our suffering by being the propitiation for our sins. Making it possible to spend eternity with Him.

John14:3

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

I just want to leave you all with a couple of quotes:

It is easier to be enthusiastic about humanity with a capital "H" than it is to love individual men and women, especially those who are uninteresting, exasperating, depraved, or otherwise unattractive. Loving everbody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular. C.S. Lewis

You cannot comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable. Princess Diana