I was talking with someone who deals with the woes, problems, and ailments of people daily, and they made the statement, "God can have mercy on them, but I have no compassion for them." Knowing this person to be a caring soul, I just listened. I recognized that they were making that statement from a place of tiredness and frustration. They had what some may call compassion fatigue. They had been working the muscle of compassion in overdrive, and it had begun to feel like they had no more to give. They could no longer muster up the desire to care anymore. They needed rest. They need the presence of mind to stop and look to God and be restored. They needed to hope again in God and be reminded of His sovereignty, provision, and plan. I am thankful to God they recognized the need for rest because the mandate before them and the mandate before us all had not changed because of weariness. Jesus gave us a new commandment, and He expects us to fulfill it. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
It can be hard trying to be an answer for someone else’s problem when we are searching for one ourselves. However, Galatians 6:2 tells us, "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ." Our situations can discourage us from desiring to open our hearts to the cries of others, to lend our strength, resources, and time to bear another’s burden. The struggles of our lives make us close our hearts and not yield them to being broken by what breaks the heart of God. It is challenging to see and sympathize with the pain of others when we are enduring ours. These reasons for not reaching out will try to keep us from walking and the freeing and empowering love of God. Jesus tells us and different instances to stop worrying about our needs and the burdens our lives have but on us and give them to Him (Matt 6:30-33 and Matt 11:28-30 ). Jesus wants us to bring Him with our stuff so that He can help us work it out, while we walk in love and faith helping others.
I pray the poem "Tell Me" encourages us not to allow reasons and even the uncertainties of today to prevent us from choosing to show the love of God to others. We cannot stop our walk of love and compassion because of the weariness we feel inside and the tiredness we experience in the physical. Take the time to find rest in God and be restored through faith and confidence in His love and provision. God wants to strengthen us through it all, and when we hope in Him our strength is renewed (Isaiah 40:29-31). Never stop giving your heart, burden, and weariness to Him expecting Him to move on your behalf. Don’t let your plan become more important than God’s, and you stop syncing and connecting with Him. I hope you all are encouraged by the poem “Tell Me” and challenged to seek God for the grace to Love like Christ.
Tell Me
How do you deal with that which is or is not logical?
How do you speak to those that don’t care?
Are reason with those who are so entangled in the words of culture and social agenda
they cannot comprehend the answer that is there?
The answers that shines a light, The solutions that make wrongs right.
How do you care for a person who can only stare and accuse?
Reaching out to the person who makes life harder by just being there?
Not a kind word or a listening ear
but only a person who has clamped down
and wrap themselves in their fears.
Can I expect the proud to listen through the crowd of their voice?
Hearing the pleas of caring individuals saying this is the way
Recognizing the life-transforming bondage-breaking Word of God.
Can I depend on them to lower the volume to hear and comprehend
Can I expect the hurting and needy to see and feel through the hurt and shame,
and immediately see the truth?
Recognizing the Love and Provision of God
Among all the other chooses among all the other voices
I don’t know, I can’t explain
How we are desperate to call on God Name
For mercy and grace,
Yet unwilling to release the same?
As if holding the sorrow will bring glory to our name.
Feeling entitled to a reward for our discomfort and pain
Uncomfortable, disappointing, shameful, and devastating things
they happen in this life
But should take it out on the blinded, enslaved, and wounded
Should I not reach out when something doesn’t work or when I am persecuted?
Are should I do as Christ and cry out to the Father
Forgive them for; they know not what they do.
Should I curse the foot that is broken?
Should I yell at the arm that now has to endure its burden?
Can I not see the loss the arm has witnessed, and the loaded that it now has to share?
It was called to take on weight it was not initially made to bear.
As Christians, we are to bear one another's burdens and care about another's plight
Tell Me can we seek God to have hearts that break for the broken souls
Ask for a desire to be a light
Giving hope in the darkness and guidance in night
Can we stop to cherish the souls of others and try and understand
Tell me can we follow Christ's new command
Can we honor His grace and love one another as He said.
Tell me what it will take to see that we all need grace
And even when it is hard, we are called to stand on our Faith