Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Go. See. Feel. Act.

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Wess Stafford is an internationally recognized advocate for children in poverty. He has also been the president of Compassion International for over two decades, a ministry that leads the world in child sponsorships. In one of his books, Stafford wrote about a teacher who learned a valuable lesson about compassion.

Several years ago, a public school teacher was hired and assigned to visit children who were patients in a large city hospital. Her job was to tutor them so they wouldn’t fall too far behind in their studies while they were recovering.

One day this teacher received a routine assignment. She took the boy’s name, hospital and room number. She contacted the boy’s regular teacher by phone and was told on the other side of the line, “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in class right now. I’d be grateful if you could help him with his homework.”

It wasn’t until she got outside the boy’s room that she realized it was located in the hospital’s burn unit. No one had prepared her for what she was about to discover on the other side of the door. Before being allowed to enter, she had to put on a sterile hospital gown and cap because of the possibility of infection. She was told not to touch the boy or his bed. She could stand near, but must speak through the mask she had to wear.

When she finally had completed all the preliminary washings and was dressed in the prescribed coverings, she took a deep breath and walked into the room. The young boy, horribly burned, was in a great deal of pain. The teacher felt awkward and didn’t know what to say, but she had gone too far to just walk out. Finally, she was able to stammer out, “I’m the special visiting hospital teacher, and your regular teacher sent me to help you with your nouns and adverbs.” Afterward, she thought it was not one her more successful tutoring sessions.

The next morning when she returned, one of the nurses on the burn unit asked her, “What did you say to that boy?” Before she could finish apologizing, the nurse interrupted her by saying, “You don’t understand. We’ve been worried about him, but ever since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment . . . It’s as though he’s decided to live.”

The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope and felt like he was going to die, until he saw that special teacher. With happy years in his eyes, the little boy who had been burned so badly expressed his transformation like this, “They wouldn’t send a special teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, now would they?”[1]

Sometimes we impart hope to others by just showing up with compassion and doing what we can in the name of Christ. Never discount the small acts of compassion. A few encouraging words, a short visit, a warm hug, a cup of cold water—can change someone’s life for eternity.

There is a simple passage in Matt. 9:36-37 which contains a profound truth, “35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

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Now obviously, we can’t do miracles like Jesus did, but notice what this passage tells us about his pattern. He went to where hurting people were, “their cities and villages.” Then He saw their suffering and that’s when His heart was moved into action. A four-step pattern emerges: Go. See. Feel. Act. The first step is always that most daunting. We have to get beyond the gated community, off the couch and out of your comfort zone. If we are going to display Christ-like compassion, we must enter the poverty and brokenness of this world. Allow our eyes to behold ugly things that break our hearts. We must be wounded by the plight of the people that inhabit our fallen planet. Instead of blogging, tweeting or posting about it, we must respond like Jesus did. True compassion crushes our heart and then moves our hands into action. -DM    





[1] Wess Stafford, Just a Minute (Chicago: Moody Press, 2012), 145-146. 

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