“This month’s character trait – compassion.” Every morning I walk past a local elementary school whose electronic marquee displays, among other things, a character trait they’re emphasizing during that month. One month it was self-control, one month it was kindness, one month it was honesty. Sounds like a good idea.
But when I saw compassion on the list, I was a little puzzled. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines compassion as the “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” Sympathy is more than an intellectual response, and so is desire. It may start in the mind and involve the will; but it eventually engages the heart, the seat of emotion, or it becomes merely a mechanical activity. How can you teach an emotional response on an intellectual level?
Ezekiel 36:26-27 says “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” We need a new heart and a new spirit, things that only God can give us. Only He can change us from the inside out. It’s not something we can grit our teeth and do for ourselves.
In Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, and Romans 13:14 Paul tells us to “put off” our old selves and to “put on” our new life and behavior. Some interpret this as something we make ourselves do. Interestingly, Paul uses the Greek word di , which means to clothe or be clothed with (in the sense of sinking into a garment). Sinking into a garment – that sounds like it’s something we allow to happen and settle on or in us. Our part in this process is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and LET Him do His work in us. If we cooperate with the Holy Spirit, He’ll transform our hearts, our minds, our entire personality to naturally want to be honest, to have self-control, and even to have a compassionate heart. These are things that can’t really be taught – they must be caught from the One Who is perfect love. Then we’ll be “dressed for success.”
Below are the first and last verses of the old hymn “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” written by Adelaide A. Pollard back in 1907. That’s the prayer of my heart, today and every day.
Have Thine Own way, Lord! Have Thine Own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Have Thine Own way, Lord! Have Thine Own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in Me.