Where Has Our Compassion Gone?

I was in Taco Bell last night.  I was going to drive thru but nature called so I went in.  As I came out of the rest room I saw 4 people standing at the counter laughing and talking about a gentleman in the back corner.  Mind you, these weren't teenagers, they were adults.  I knew all 4 of those people laughing.  I wish I could say they were laughing because the gentleman had told them a joke, but they were laughing because he was crying.  The sad thing to me, I had attended church with 3 of the 4, one of which was an officer in the church.


Well, to those who were laughing, that man who as weeping in the back corner of Taco Bell has (in the past 7 months) lost a wife to cancer, a daughter to a heroin overdose and had all his money stolen from a stepson who was "helping him take care of the funeral expenses so he didn't have to worry about it."

How do I know?  Because I asked him.  Yes, I got my order to go, but I couldn't stand there and not see if there was something I could do to help that man.

I don't write about this to make me look good at all.  I, like Paul, am a sinner and the chief of all sinners.  I write this to urge people to have compassion.  As Christians we are to follow Christ.  Christ was a man of compassion.  When He saw people hurting, He offered solutions, not laughter. 

One of my favorite stories of the compassion of Christ is found in Luke 7.  A funeral procession was passing by in Nain.  Jesus saw a widow who was about to bury her son.  Such was His compassion on this woman's pain, that He raised her son from the dead.  He had compassion and did something about it.

Where has our compassion gone?  Why do we feel the need to kick people when they are down?  Why must we have that feeling of superiority when someone falls or has misfortune?  

For me, understanding compassion comes when we understand God's grace.  Talk about compassion.  I am, in no way, worthy of the grace of God.  I am a sinner, guilty as charged.  But God's compassion is found in His grace.  He knows I am guilty, He knows who He is and who I am, but He rather than show His superiority by condemning me, He shows compassion by offering me grace.

That man in Taco Bell needed someone to know they cared.  While I prayed with him, he cried more and more.  But when I left there, he smiled and simply said, "Thank you sir/"  I did nothing but allow Jesus to be seen in that moment.  It is what we are supposed to do.  Where is your compassion?