2020: The Year of Compassion

There has been little more apparent this year than the fact that a large majority of the US population is divided. Everywhere you look, it appears that battle lines have been drawn. We have the Millennials vs Boomers, the Left vs Right, the Masks vs Rights, Black Lives Matter vs Blue Lives Matter. There are people mentally breaking because of the pull in so many different directions.

It doesn’t help that society itself has so many conflicts falling into place all at the same time. And those emotions and arguments are overflowing into our churches.

I compared the hardships to Moses’ wandering in the desert. I’ve also compared the current conflict within the Church to Christ’s role in the spiritual war. As a Christian leaning on God’s direction, nothing is more apparent than that 2020 will either result in Christians learning compassion or in their breaking.

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Luke 10:33 NLT

The fact that this year is an election year adds to the social turmoil, but the frustrations stemming from the shortcomings of our political leaders on both sides don’t change our calling. The world needs the Good Samaritan. The world needs field medics. Field medics are trained as soldiers and know how to fight, but their priorities are driven by their oath to serve and nurture the wounded. Their compassion for others is meant to outweigh their concerns for the battle. Sometimes that service requires fighting, but when it does, it isn’t for themselves, but because the safety of others depends on it.

Christians who are driven by hurt and anger to fight only add to the hurt and anger of the world. Without a compassionate servant’s heart, you are more likely to do more damage than help and heal.

2020 will be a year where Christians learn compassion, or it will be a year that they are indistinguishable from non-believers, and completely fail at our mission. When our emotions and energies for political conflict are greater than our ability to show God’s grace and love to the world, then we have lost the war. God’s calling is never based on our status or even our well-being, because in Eternity’s priorities, nothing but eternal changes matter.

If 2020 hasn’t taught you compassion, then you aren’t listening. It’s hard to help and hold others up when you can barely stand on your own, but the Good Samaritan helped where he could; he wasn’t called to do it all. Compassion calls you to do what you can, which is often significantly more than the world will do for others. For many, compassion is simply setting aside our personal struggles long enough to learn about the struggles of others around us. We have all been called to compassion and to pray, and both require more outward reflection than inward conflict.