Yesterday was a day of remembering. Remembering the price many men and women have paid in service to our country. The sacrifice they gave. 

As a civilian living day to day life, it can be difficult to grasp the deep significance of days like Memorial Day. We have not stood where soldiers have. We have not seen the breaking, the pain they have. We have not walked on blood-stained earth. 

My grandpa was a WWII veteran. While his words were few about his days as a soldier his face told a story. Talking about the war gave his eyes a glistening coat. Tears welling and escaping. A man that didn’t show emotion often, however, words like war, WWII, D-Day and the like would send him to a place he experienced in the past. A place where he saw things humans were not meant to see. A place where pain is beyond processing, beyond comprehension. The dark side. The breaking like no other. 

While I don’t have the capacity to understand the things war veterans have seen I do have the ability to give compassion. To love them. To come along side them in their pain. To hold, pray with and trust a God bigger than war. 

Experience is not a must for compassion. Understanding is not needed to love. A heart broken. A heart humbled. Grateful. We all have stuff. We all have experienced pain at some level or another. No human escapes this stained world without being touched by pain. 

Even when your pain doesn’t look like another’s I dare you to reach out anyway. To put your hand on their shoulder, arms around their neck. Share your brokenness. Give a piece of your heart in deep compassion. Show love even in your own brokenness. 

Christ has been broken for all over us. His body on the cross, suffering pain. And in His pain, He reaches out to us. In His suffering, He loves us greatly. 

It’s okay to reach out, to touch. You don’t need to be perfect, without pain to love, to touch another hurting soul. 

 

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. NIV

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. NLT

Colossians 3:12  Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. NLT

Hebrews 9:28  so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. NKJV

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. ESV