“So, chosen by God
for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you:
compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered,
content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and
completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on,
wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” Co
3:12 – The Message.
When our children were little I would always go before
them and lay out the clothes I had chosen for them to wear that day. Caroline
in particular would need extra help since her goal was always to maneuver her
bathing suit into her attire no matter the time of year. Some days the kids
would comply and dress themselves appropriately while other days they would go
‘off script’ creating their own unique coverings. As I was thinking about those
yesteryear days, I found myself smiling reminiscing about some of the crazy
things they wore. They are now all grown and fortunately all have a nice style of
their own and wear garments that are suitable for public.
But I began thinking of it in spiritual terms and how God
goes before us laying out what He has chosen daily for us to wear. As our
passage states, God has given us the wardrobe He desires for us to be clothed
in whether in public or private. One of the greatest examples of this wardrobe
was when I facilitated Grief Share at our church. One by one family members
filed in broken and despaired wearing an incredible spirit of heaviness and
hopelessness. As the group continued to return each Sunday night, I sensed the
weight of the individuals a little lighter than the week before. Why was this?
What was different the subsequent weeks from the first week? It was the spirit
of compassion and community which always was ushered in by the Father of
compassion. It took courage for those hurting hearts to show up, and it took
hope to propel them to attend. Each week I would watch one heavy hearted person
slip the garment of love and compassion around the shoulders of another. The
next week I watched that same comfort be reciprocated. Anger, bitterness and
hopelessness are so much easier to dwell in because it is humanity’s default
emotion. But to show up bloodied, bruised and broken takes courage that nothing
else can replace. When the brokenness in our eyes is reflected in the
brokenness of someone else’s we suddenly see ourselves equalized and energized
to comfort another.
Will we see the human behind the hurt? Will we take our
heartbreaking experience and do something to help another? Will we show up like
the Grief Share participants did with the courage to care and the heart to
share wrapping our compassion around another? Lysa TerKeurst writes in It’s Not
Supposed to Be This Way, ‘The
compassionate soul who has hurt deeply and come out loving is one of the
superstars of God’s grand story, and the one you want near you in the battles
of life. She wears well her scars of suffering and can’t wait to tell you her
survival story so you too, can survive…So show up…People need you. People need
me. People need to know God’s compassion is alive and well and winning the epic
battle of good versus evil’ pp. 83-84.
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