The day broke open wide along the road this morning with a quick grocery trip for supplies, a petrol stop, and a meeting with the Horst family, a US missionary family living in the Nsogo area of Eswatini. We got the privilege of hearing firsthand about their ministry, a medical clinical partnership under Kudvumisa Foundation, and their economic development opportunities in beekeeping and woodworking. Other members of the Kudvumisa team joined us for an always leisurly lunch at the Simunye Club.
A quick rest, lots of pick ups (10 people in an 8 passenger van is always great) and we headed to Mafacula church for revival services. Revival services are always a sweet time of reunion and rejoicing in Eswatini, and the singing, testimonies and preaching stir our hearts.
Tonight Jimmy preached a heartfelt message on the Good Samaritan – Luke 10.
To sum it up in a word? Compassion.
The “New Oxford American Dictionary” defines compassion as “a sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.”But Jesus tells us compassion is more than the look offered in that definition. Compassion looks upon another persons suffering and pain – and acts.
“And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’” – Zechariah 7:8-10 NIV
Compassion moves us. Compels us to see people in this suffering, as they are. And to DO something about it. The Horst family and Kudvumisa foundation saw an issue, looked upon it with compassion and acted. With a loose grip and the Lord’s guiding, they built. They created. They asked. They moved, they acted.
The most beautiful part of the Good Samaritan story was that the Samaritan was just living a life, walking along a road to Jericho. There wasn’t particularly anything special to the journey according the story. He could have kept going. But he stopped. He acted.
“The reasons we don’t see the needs of other people is we don’t want to look. We’re too busy. Getting invoked in the lives of other people costs us something.” – Jimmy Johnson
Next time you’re walking through a store, interacting with a colleague, waiting at a stop light – stop for a moment. Really look. What do you see? Ask the Lord for the lens of compassion. Give me Your eyes so I can see. Where can you ask and meet need today?
It doesn’t start across an ocean – it’s starts along the road you’re already traveling.
