But when he saw the multitudes ...
He was moved with compassion.
Matt 9:36
There are many core foundations and motivations to mission. All legitimate motivations stem from the heart of a hurting, loving God. The way we view our lives and those around us is so important. It is foundational to our identity and purpose. We could even go as far as to say that it will be a critical factor on the day we face God face-to-face.
A tale of two sights.
We can look at this world through human eyes. It causes us to see broken people as the cause of our disturbance/frustration/ inconvenience. We look at the faults, not the plight; we look at the details of error, not the remedy. Alternatively, by God's incomprehensible grace, he can invade our lives and overwhelm us by His grace in Jesus. This causes us to see that we are more at fault than we ever understand and more loved than we could ever comprehend. This spiritual work births in us spiritual (supernatural) sight as we look at people, by which we see the plight, not them as problems. Without such vision, we cannot say we are in tune with God. This is the view of the eternal God who set His heart on humanity in eternity past. One of the greatest crimes of eternity is when we say we are born of God and have no grace towards others. Without such a vision of grace and hunger for God to work (Proverbs 29), people perish. Spiritual vision is of what God can do, as the foundation of what we see and do is an essential character of God's people.
Wet eyes of compassion.
Lord, move the eyes of the church to be wet. Never has so much suffering been so easily viewed. We have the liberty to doom scroll on multiple apps from the comfort of our beds. Our bodies do not move, but even worse, our hearts become more complacent. The fault is not with the media, our phone, our TV, our computer, or our tablet. Neither is it the fault of the billionaire owner, the algorithm. The problem lies firmly with hardening hearts that desire to skip compassion for an easier life. No doubt we have a finite limit, we can have a full tank of compassion for suffering, and self-care notifies us to our capacity, but at that point, yours, O LORD, is unlimited, and we can talk to you, ask you to take over the burden... if our hearts are so inclined. The problem is our empty tanks. The issue is that we are not always (or sometimes hardly ever) inclined. Your compassion overspills with abundance, throughout the cosmos, throughout the ages. Ours fails to remember we need your filling, and we arrogantly so soon run on empty. Where does our hardness come from? How can we so easily forget your compassion towards us? How can we claim to be in tune with you but out of step with the Spirit who speaks in compassion (2 Peter 3:9, 1 Tim 2:4)?
Restore our vision.
An older relative recently had laser eye surgery. At a major birthday, I asked if they needed their glasses to read the cards, but back came the reply, "Since I had my eyes done, I have complete freedom, I've forgotten I even had glasses to help me". The operation of grace is more powerful than any Optegra process. In a world which sees people as a number, help me see everyone as your creation, uniquely fashioned, uniquely loved. Teach me like you did the early disciples to see people in the light of eternal reality. Forgive me, LORD, for any work I have done before you, done in your name without compassion. Forgive us, LORD, for being involved in busy churches, which mask a lack of compassion with a busy program.
Lift our eyes to see a bright white harvest.
Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”
John 4:35-38
When we start to look through the eyes of grace and compassion, we see there is no shortage of opportunity. Sometimes our role is as a sower of compassion, after which another will come to reap in the name of Jesus. Sometimes we turn up after years of compassion as the one privileged to reap. Our momentary compassion is met with the eternal purposes of Christ already at play. It is not our compassion that has seen salvation; it is his, but what a privilege to be there when compassion wins the day.
May your day today be filled with compassion. The LORD move our hearts to give us a deeper passion to be churned by His grace, in our hearts, in our eyes, in our churches, in our travels, in our teaching and preaching. LORD, thank you for your undeserved, unending love towards our colossal mess of our own making.
Motivation 1 is here.
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