1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Someone shared a link on Facebook today for an article about the mother of Lance Bass, member of “boy band” ‘NSync. Bass has publicly “come out” as a gay man. Today’s devotional is really not about the debate over homosexuality. But it is about Christian compassion. And to that end, Bass’s mother - a woman whose roots run deep in Southern Baptist Christianity – had a lot to say. Diane Bass explained that she considered herself a “tenderhearted” person…and because she found her broken heart so unbearable, she asked God to take away her tender heart.
When Bass researched the word “tenderhearted”, she learned it meant “having compassion”. She studied scripture and came to the conclusion that this was not what God wanted for her. She said, “If he took away my tender heart, I would no longer have compassion for others. If I did not have compassion for others, I would not have the attitude of Christ. I never prayed that God take away my tender heart again.”*
What about you? Are you irritable…judgmental…demanding your own way and keeping records of heartaches and offenses? Are you truly tenderhearted – toward ALL people? Or are you selective, arrogant, impatient with those who do not see things as you do – even unkind at times? Do you really have Christ-like compassion for others?
I repeat…this is not a debate about homosexuality or any other hot-button issue. It really doesn’t matter which side you are on, if you are truly modeling Christian discipleship and compassion. Diane Bass also shares an experience she had as a 6-year-old child, when she unknowingly drank from a “colored” water fountain because she was thirsty. Her grandmother screamed at her to stop, and in her heart, she knew there was “something just not right about that.”
There is “something just not right” about how we treat a lot of people and situations… because we have failed to ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?”…then act accordingly. Isn’t it time for each of us to do exactly that?
©2014 Debbie Robus
*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lance-bass/the-first-thing-my-mom-di_b_4556471.html
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