Ordinary Time

Pause

“Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it's like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, 1973

We serve a God who knows what it’s like to walk in our shoes. We follow Christ, who looks at us with compassion and says, “Go in peace.” And, we find joy in the embrace of God’s Spirit.

Will you accept God’s compassion for you? Will you share such compassion with those around you?

Pause. Breathe. Soak it in. God’s compassion is yours. Today and every day.

Listen

A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.

Mark 5:24b-29

Think

The words of the hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love,” are so hauntingly beautiful, but do you ever wonder if they ring true for us?

A woman so riddled with pain that not a single doctor could care for her once pushed her way through a crowd, releasing every last bit of energy left inside her aching body just to touch the cloak of the One she knew only by rumors of his love and compassion. Instantly, upon a single touch, her pain ceased and she was healed.

This woman didn’t know Jesus. She only heard stories of a man who healed the sick, fed the hungry, and looked on every person with compassion.

Do people know this about you and me? Would anyone today push their way through a crowd to find a Christian to help them?

Someone needs you today. Will they know where to find you? Open your eyes. Listen. Respond.

“And they’ll know we are Christians by our love…”

Emily Holladay

Pray

Lord, please open my heart today that your love would be evident through me. Help the world to know that I am Christian by my love. Amen.

Go

What would happen if you believed God’s compassion is deep enough and wide enough for you? Would you accept it? Would you share it?

Go today, confident in this: The God who made you came to Earth to walk in your shoes, that you might know the overwhelming peace and joy made just for you.

What are you waiting for? Go! Share this wonderful news!