The Ancient Relevance

So I'm a member of this facebook group called "The Ancient Relevance". We are following a reading plan that takes us through the entire Bible in 2009. And by what I'm about to write my fellow ancient revelers, no that's not right (although some of us probably were), my fellow ancient relevanters, that can't be right either, my.........ummm............those of you reading along with me this year, will be able to tell that I'm a bit behind the reading plan. I will be catching up this weekend.

Anyway, I read through the Bible every year and it seems almost new every time. I love that. And this is especially true for me this year as I am reading the New Living Translation. I've been an NIVer for years.

Job chapter 2 really struck me this morning. Job has boils from head to toe. And his friends have heard about him losing most all of his possessions and how all his kids have died in a tornado. So they are traveling from their homes to comfort him. When they arrive they are shocked. They hardly even recognize Job. And I love what they DON'T do in verse thirteen. There's no false comfort, no empty greetings, no words about hanging in there till things get better, no attempt to explain his tragedy and circumstances away. They just sit with him. For days.

"Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words."

Our word "compassion" comes from the latin words "com" and "passio", literally meaning to "suffer with." Compassion, then is not just a feeling. It is action. To have compassion for someone is much more than loving them with head and heart. It is to suffer with them. It is to sponsor a child with Compassion International. It is to take a mission trip with ChildReach Ministries and hold an orphan in your arms. It is to travel to the Ukraine and give teenagers a forever family through adoption. It is to sit in the gutter with someone and say absolutely nothing.