#Politics. Compassion In Action.

Compassion is not meant to be a complex word. Traditionally it is a sympathetic response and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others despite the victim’s default to wrongdoing.

I love President Joe Biden. Allow me to share my story.

---

Compassion is a belief of deep sympathy and sorrow for another stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

First, allow me to confess that my default is not to be sympathetic to those that are responsible for wrongdoings related to anti-Biblical views. Classically, my initial reaction is to be harsh and critical – particularly regarding church/government politics. Instead of defaulting to commiseration, mercy, tenderness, and pardon, I frequently embrace full-on judgment in my mind. Once that happens, mercilessness and indifference begin to dominate my communications. Ouch!

I am certain that Jesus Christ within me perfectly represents compassion for all.

I know intellectually that compassion is sympathy, which our Lord commonly uses in most of His interactions with the masses, past and present. Jesus never “felt” sorry for people who are in negative situations. While He had a supernatural ability to have compassion for wrongdoers, He always had a passion for helping them. As for me, normally, it was quite the opposite – indifference and cold-heartedness. While I was quick to “preach” love, hope, joy, patients, etc., there were certain individuals I could not extend such saving Grace. The President of the United States was one of them.

I am not lazy when it comes to research. Before Joe Biden was elected as President, legally or not, I did my homework. What I found was not only mind-bending but also outright disturbing. As many of these facts surfaced in media newsfeeds, I quietly gloated. So much so my views of compassion faded. I began calling him names in my mind like – an antichrist, evil, socialist, and honestly, a host of other nasty labels. I was convinced this man was driving our nation into a pile of communism. As it turned out, I was right. However, the Lord didn’t find pleasure in my attitude toward an authority figure that was, in my mind, evil. Sometimes I wished Jesus would have minded His own business until one day; I realized He indeed was. Through many encounters with Jesus in my quiet times, I heard His words in His normal whisper – “Where is My Compassion?” That led me down a long road of reviewing the Biblical Truths hidden within this word.

While in the middle of this journey of discovering the authentic meaning of compassion, I open my daily newsfeeds. Front and center was a picture of the President with a title announcing yet another gaff. The title didn’t phase me; I was used to seeing these “click-bate” video views. It was the look I saw on his face. I had seen hundreds of contorted pictures of the President, but this time it locked me into a dead stare. Then Jesus spoke within my soul: If I have compassion for him, why do you not? I began to weep like a child. God flooded my soul with supernatural compassion. The kind of compassion I still can’t communicate its depth. What I can tell you is, from that day forward, when I see his picture, I often weep and say, I love you, sir. Then I typically start praying for authentic salvation.

What was it I saw in our President’s face?

The look I saw was a man slipping into some form of Alzheimer’s disease. This brought to mind President Ronald Reagan’s adversity. During my stint in politics, through supernatural circumstances, I was invited to host the last public interview with the President on my radio show in Phoenix, Arizona. With the secret service in place, and the studio locked down with security, I am at the mic waiting for him to walk in. However, Nancy notified us moments before the show was to go live; I am sorry, but the President will not be able to do the interview today. With sadness, my co-host and I asked if he was OK. She shared that the President was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and that today was not a good day. Bringing things forward, the look I saw on President Joe Biden’s face matched the “look” on President Reagan’s face. I knew our President was in for some tough days ahead.

President Reagan was an easy man to love. He is one of my political heroes. I could not say the same about President Biden – for many reasons. The Lord, however, equalized me on the day of staring into his picture. The Lord connected the dots in light of President Reagan’s and our President's sufferings. I was faced with a crisis of belief.

Jesus taught me something that shook me to the core. He revealed that the President’s sins are no greater than mine. His past might be more colorful than mine, but sin is sin. His need for redemption is no different than the redemption I needed and accepted. To a man who gave himself (me) permission to be hyper-critical under conditions of what I called evil, this revelation was BIG.    

Today I call empathy the doorway to compassion.

It is NOT compassion. To connect to God-sized compassion, I had to connect to the empathy the Lord had/has on humanity. This led me to be challenged by Paul Bloom’s words.

So if you’re in pain and I feel your pain—I am feeling empathy toward you. If you’re being anxious, I pick up your anxiety. If you’re sad and I pick up your sadness, I’m being empathetic. And that’s different from compassion. Compassion means I give your concern weight and I value it. I care about you but don’t necessarily pick up your feelings. If I feel compassion for you, I’ll be invigorated. I’ll be happy, and I’ll try to make your life better.   

I dislike the words “feelings” and “happy.” However, I get Paul’s point. Was my attitude toward our President making his life better? Absolutely not. Was I invigorated by his condition? Absolutely not. In fact, I was more invigorated by the disdain for his living legacy. Folks, that is called a judgment of the unsaved. I am well versed in the Bible enough to know that was not my job. My job was to love him, and love includes empathy and compassion.

Compassion is an old word; it’s been part of the human language since the days of Noah and comes ultimately from Hebrew. However, the Latin for com- and pati means “to bear, suffer.” Empathy, however, is a 20th-century expression modeled on sympathy. Since empathy is not in the Bible, the Greek word for compassion is oikteirō - to have pity. When Jesus used the word pity, He used the Hebrew chûs, which means to cover, pity, regard, or spare. The bottom line, Jesus intended to spare a life by covering the person’s sins. The same illustration of Noah’s two sons backing in backward to cover their father’s sin. In Hebrew, it is the greatest act of compassion a man can express to another.

I openly admit I was working to expose President Biden’s sins, not cover them. Speaking ill of him to others was beyond gossip. It was defiling. Since I don’t know this man from Adam, calling forth my opinion by regurgitating the opinions of others put me in this defiling position, let alone dishonoring an authority figure in God’s presents. Justifying my sins of judging his sins which only God knew, I was pushing God off of His throne of judgment and placing myself in that throne chair. Not good. I needed a wake-up call and got one.

Bringing things up to date.

Yesterday I was sent a “news flash” of a world-known pastor and his recent affliction. I had personal “debates” with him in the past over some of his liberal Biblical views. The debates ended with an agreement to disagree. Then the news flash that he had been diagnosed with CIDP, the same disease I suffer from. This was my test. While unpleasant memories flowed back into my mind, my immediate response was compassion. My newfound Spirit-led response to situations like this had been confirmed. This will become critical in facing Giants like this in the future.  

All of this reminded me of some words that Jesus spoke.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:43-45)      

There is more meat in these three verses than most Christians can process. It certainly is NOT how most believers function. Those that can, I praise Jesus. Those of us challenged to the core with such illogical Truths have some growing up to do in Christ.

I know that there will be plenty of opportunities ahead for me to release the indwelling compassion of Jesus. Honestly, I look forward to them. God said that He tests whom He loves. Testing is never fun – for anyone. However, if there is one test I want to pass, it is this one.   

I will close with Toni Morrison’s words:

The topic of compassion addresses at every point in its structural edifice and lingers over in every fissure, the slave's body, and personality: the way it speaks, what passion, legal or illicit, it is prey to, what pain it can endure, what limits, if any, there are to its suffering, what possibilities there are for forgiveness, compassion, and love.