Spinning the Wheels
A blog by Josh Smith
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the complexities of the human heart. I feel like a big problem that I’ve observed is the lack of compassion and sensitivity to the fact that people are just that, people. What I mean by compassion and sensitivity is not the vague, over dramatic, disingenuous nonsense that any self respecting man is incapable of participating in. Rather, I am talking about the kind of genuine compassion that was shown by Christ himself. What would we think of Jesus if we read of him encountering troubled people and his responses to them were comments such as, “You know, your problem is just _____. If you would just _____, then you wouldn’t have that problem anymore.”? Jesus was the only man to ever live who truly possessed the right to say “if you would just do things my way it would all be better for you,” and yet that’s not the way he responds to people. When we make these types of comments to people about their situations we are often doing so out of arrogance and pride, whether we mean to or not. We are saying to that person that their problems are simple and easily handled, as if we could do so with no problem if faced with the same or similar situations. That is quite arrogant, and extremely presumptuous.
I’m completely preaching to the choir here. There have been so many times that I’ve looked at a person from a distance and judged them by insisting such things as, “they are just too dramatic,” or “they are just making things more difficult than they have to be.” Nearly every time I’ve done this I’ve later learned that there was more to that persons situation than I was aware of. Things are just not always that simple.
This post is not an attempt to suggest that we ought to excuse and overlook all types of behavior and choices. I’m not suggesting that one shouldn’t intervene in the lives of others who are struggling or have fallen off a cliff that leads to their ruin. If anything my suggestion is just the opposite. We should interact in one another’s lives during times of struggle with the same goal in mind that Jesus had, restoration. If our intentions and genuine desires are to see a hurting, struggling, suffering person fully restored in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God and the joy of man, then by all means we should pursue them in love and humility.
