Eric Metaxas is a best selling author and broadcaster. His biographies on Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were extensively researched and masterfully written. In the August 4 edition of "World Magazine" Mataxas was interviewed on the subject of compassion. Metaxas does a nice job of differentiating the way conservatives and liberals define and practice compassion.
Metaxas was then asked the following question: Does delayed marriage make us less compassionate?
I can say that living in New York City, where everyone tends to get married late if they get married at all, you start seeing the sadness. Many people say, "If I had to do it all over, I wish I had got married. I bought the lie that the culture was selling in every magazine and every TV program: 'No, I shouldn't get married and have kids. That's just some kind of enslavement. I want to be free'." It rarely works out that way. As a culture we're just beginning to see the downside of what's been called freedom.
Anytime we look for freedom outside of Christ Jesus, we are bound to become enslaved. Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." Jesus has set us free from sin, free from guilt, free from anxiety and worry, free from wondering about the future. We are free to offer compassion to others, not because the culture or a political party says its the right thing to do. We offer compassion because it was first extended to us through the love of Jesus who gave His life so that we might have life.
Have a blessed day today. May God give you the opportunity to show the compassion of Jesus to someone who needs to know love and help without strings attached.
