To be very honest, compassion is not one of my strongest point.
Don’t be mistaken, I do feel for those hurting and struggling. However, when it comes to things like funerals of relatives-of-not-so-close-friends or visiting the sick loved ones of not-so-close-friends in the hospital, I’m not so eager. For me, it just seems like I do not achieve much with taking the time off to attend the funerals or to visit the hospital.
Recently, my wife’s father had to undergo a heart surgery and I accompanied my wife frequently to the hospital to visit her father. Being there often, I was able to see the number of visitors my father-in-law got. What impressed me most was the number of our church (wife & myself) members who took the time off, just to visit our father. Even people who were not so close to us, made time to come down all the way to NUH to visit. They brought flowers, gifts, fruits and most of all their time. From what I could tell, it had a big impact on my father-in-law. How I know this? He finally prayed to receive Christ right in the hospital!
You see, my father-in-law comes to our church with my mother-in-law, simply cause she has recently converted and wants to attend. Thus, she pulls him along. Several attempts have been made to encourage him to accept Jesus, but he usually says that he is not ready. Even my wife tried just 2 days before, only to receive the same response. However on sunday morning, just after our service, my wife receives a phone-call from one of our church leaders who had visited our father after the earlier service and informed her that her dad prayed to receive Christ with them. My wife was overwhelmed beyond words.
It’s situations like this that further confirms to me that God’s plans and purposes are perfect, no, infact more than perfect. My wife and mother-in-law no doubt endured much struggling and worrying over the past couple of days, but now, as we look back, we can see how God was working out his perfect plans. More than bringing another precise soul into His kingdom, God has also left an indelible mark on me about compassion.
The compassion showered upon my father-in-law from our friends and church members had such a profound impact that it literally broke-down the walls that separated him from God. No easy task. I believe that without their visits, this would never have happened. Furthermore, I believe that many of them did not come with the intention of converting my father-in-law, but out of a genuine heart of concern, which God was able to work powerfully through.
Thus, the next time such an opportunity opens up for me, I will be sure to remind myself that even though a simple visit may not seem like much, the attendance of distant friend’s relative funeral, the act and demonstration of compassion is more powerful than I have imagined. I am truly humbled and I pray for strength to tear myself away from all my agenda in order to demonstrate more of this compassion, which God has given me a chance to see through this incident.
