Why are we uncomfortable in the face of someone who needs something that we can give? A young man interrupted my religious studies class last week first wondering where the bathroom was and next asking for a bus ticket or change to get home (my class is downtown in a cultural center). No one knew what to do, my prof laughed out loud and laughter rippled through the room until people started reaching for wallets and change and one girl finally pulled out a bus ticket. What is it that gets people to that state? Deep down there is a discomfort when faced with the pain of suffering and being uncomfortable in the face of someone who doesn’t have what we sit there having. I’m sitting in this course, paying close to five hundred dollars to hear my prof lecture on perspectives of suffering in religion, we’re faced with someone in need and no one knows what to do.

I had a flashback to an afternoon in Panama where our team was on the adventure cycle and eating lunch in a grocery store cafeteria. An old man walked slowly up and down the aisles in the café, not asking for anything and not looking for anything, just slowly walking. But, he absolutely broke my heart. The clothing, the dirtiness, just the absolute emptiness in his eyes and his steps. He sat down in a little booth a couple of tables away, and again I had no idea what to do. I was too emotionally choked up to make a move and still conversation flowed all around me. I asked my friend Jon to go and buy him some lunch which he did and sat down and talked to him for a minute or two. I have no idea what was said even still but the moment continues to stick with me even now.

Last night I was reading in Luke when Jesus performs a miracle and raises the widow’s dead son from the dead. Verse 13 states that “when the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her…” This is one of my favorite passages. Jesus’ heart moved with compassion for the pain and suffering that this woman was going through. He loves us so much and I think it pains him when we suffer, whatever exactly that means. But his heart still moves in response to our pain and that gives me the strength and encouragement. I’m a tenderhearted person and if you spend a lot of time with me you’ll find that I am really prone to tears when something touches my heart. I get what this verse is saying, it totally hits home for me. Our hearts need to move when someone is in pain, and sometimes we need to take a step of faith and act with compassion towards those around us. Matthew 9:36 says when Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion on them. It’s when our hearts aren’t moved by those around us that I think we have a problem. I think my favorite bible character is King David and largely because he was a man after Gods heart. I want to be a woman after the heart of the Father and I pray that continually he remolds and reshapes my heart, so that I’m passionate what God is passionate about and that the things that break his heart would also break mine too. I know that this is kind of a heavy thought, it’s just been on my heart for a while, let me know what you think.