Compassion Makes Hurt Things New

Where does all the judgment and condemnation emanate from either in us to hurt others or ourselves or from others as it comes back to us?

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Where does all the judgment and condemnation come from?

It’s certainly not from the Lord.

Could it come from the hurt within us?

When grace we cannot afford.

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Judgment interpersonally is not of God, nor is condemnation. It runs cross-grain to the gospel that anyone would consider either of these a worthy ploy for the disposing of communicative sentiments.

But far too many people still speak from the hurt within them; in fact, we all do.

Only recently I was reminded that this voice of fear—the unhealed material fired from within the molten core of my brokenness—leaps out when we least expect it. Perhaps this is most due pride. Certainly as we begin to get ahead of ourselves, this caustic nothingness inside us rears its ugly identity and reminds us who we actually are, devoid of God.

Occasionally, however, we hurt people or are hurt in a transactional way: we hurt them because they hurt us or the other way around, with the cycle abounding. What are we to do to protect ourselves and the other from this whipping of the emotions?

Compassion, Compassion, Compassion... and then More Compassion

We all need this quality in abundance and I’m not sure what characterised Jesus more than compassion—perhaps humility, patience, wisdom and every other virtue in perfect order.

But compassion set the Lord apart.

And it is Jesus’ will for us in our lives that we would enrol ourselves to compassion; to learn of it, to apply it, to be committed to it beyond our hurt or theirs.

The point of judgment and condemnation is this: it’s not from God, but it is from the sore and sorry human being who is, themselves, bitter and twisted inside.

Because God’s inevitable and eventual judgment is perfectly just, it wavers not an iota from the truth. But ours is born of our frailties and fallibilities.

Abiding with compassion—which makes our frailties and fallibilities superfluous—makes all things new, because it loses sight of the things of this world and it sets its sights on the things of heaven.

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Hurt abounds hurt and it produces judgment and condemnation. It’s never of God. Compassion is the way to make the hurt less relevant so far as our or their response is concerned. When we respond in compassion we melt away the fear that underlies the hurt, judgment and condemnation. Compassion makes all things new.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.