The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. (James 5:11b, NIV)
Because my cancer treatments this year have sapped both my time and energy, my golf experience has been from afar. That is, I watch the tournaments on TV and hope that when I do return to the game, maybe in the cooler temps of fall, I will have enough good visuals from watching those professional swings to carry over to my own play.
What’s funny is that while I hope I will “feel it” then, there are certainly things I already feel now. One of those is the pain of a narrowly missed putt. When a good roll stops just at the lip, I let out a groan right along with the player. It’s a response we call compassion—the sharing of another’s feelings, especially feelings of pain.
Little by little this month, we are exploring the traits that the apostle Paul instructed the Colossians to “clothe yourselves with.” The first of these is compassion.
At the risk of hitting below the belt, let’s take a minute to consider the idea of compassion at its Greek roots. If you read Colossians 3:12 in the King James Version, you won’t find the word compassion; rather, you will read bowels of mercy. Though the cultural way of thinking was that the bowels were the locus of more violent traits, such as anger and love, the Hebrews connected the bowels to the heart and saw them as the place where tender attributes had their root. When the Greek for bowels and mercy were put together, then, it was understood that one was feeling the pain of another.
Since we are clothing ourselves with compassion, we should never hesitate to show we care.
You may be reminded here of 1 Corinthians 12:26, where we read: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it…” Paul’s metaphor of the body showed the interconnectedness of human beings, especially brothers and sisters in Christ. We feel it when someone else hurts. And since we are clothing ourselves with compassion, we should never hesitate to show we care.
Jesus demonstrated compassion on many occasions, some of which are described plainly with these words: “He had compassion.” Jesus’ compassion extended to the harassed and helpless (Matthew 9:36), the sick (Matthew 14:14), the hungry (Matthew 15:32), the blind (Matthew 20:34), and the unshepherded (Mark 6:34). The prodigal’s father in Jesus’ well-known parable ran to his son and embraced him because he was filled with compassion for him.
Perhaps surprisingly, the “five tees” (LINKS) of Links Players include this K: Kindle compassion for the poor and needy. This may seem out of place in a golf ministry. But it is never out of place for believers, those who would pattern their lives after Christ and be guided by the Holy Spirit. If Jesus felt the needs of others, we should too. If he healed the sick and blind, fed the hungry, and reached out to those who were lost, our compassion must be more than a feeling; it must turn to action.
On the golf course, we wear comfortable clothing so we can play our best. In life, we wear compassion so we can come alongside those who are hurting and truly help them.
—
Jeff Hopper
August 5, 2020
Copyright 2020 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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