Compassion to suffer with, patiently, kindly, faithfully

Nothing quite speaks ministry like the capacity to suffer with.  In essence, that is the shortest definition of the word compassion: to suffer with.  We only have to reach back to those times when people ministered to us, by suffering with us, to understand the power of ministry in facilitating our healing.  Even as we became individual witnesses to the power of the Spirit, as we were healed, and then became healers in our own right; wounded healers.

Whenever compassion is truly experienced, which is a gift someone gives us in their care when we are at our most vulnerable, we are converted therefore to compassion.  Once compassion has been ministered to us, we cannot help but to minister by compassion to others.  Compassion begets compassion, even as a Jesus-figure walks with us, suffering with us, patiently, kindly, faithfully, much to the extent that we could not have previously imagined that style and abundance of care.  Surely it is true that we could not have conceived we would need that depth of care — until we did.

The capacity to care with compassion — the steadfastness of patience, kindness and faithfulness to suffer with — is authentically a heavenly experience, and a person gifted to us to this extent is always a Godsend.

They sit with us, and they are available, and they serve in such abject humility you would hardly imagine they had any needs at all (when of course they do; they’re just fed elsewhere).  They don’t require anything of us, whilst they are happy for us to need them.  Their compassion is a strength that we can depend on when our strength is gone.  They are the epitome of faith when our faith has been vanquished.  When we might be about to give up on Jesus, they become Jesus to us.  They ride the waves of the tears and tumult, the anxious times, and the times we’re triggered.  They always seem to turn up with a gentle smile, and then exude calm.  We fear that we overstep the mark, yet they reassure us that we’ll be fine.  They stand in the gap for us.

It’s having experienced this in living flesh that gives us the desire to pay it forward.  We, the benefactors, have seen as witnesses within ourselves, bearing the testimony, the majestic power of care to carry us from a relentless suffering through the passage of the vacuous and painful in-between through to a place of resurrection life — the likes of which can only come from God.

It truly is an honour to suffer with people enduring great anguish.  To serve them patiently, kindly, faithfully, so they may experience Jesus through us.  A most compelling evangelistic device, discipleship runs deep where compassion tends to an open wound.

Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash