Last year, I was in Guyana for a mission trip at the Kimbia Mission Academy, an Adventist boarding school in the jungle. I was with the girls almost all day long, working as a teacher and living in the dorm with them as a girls’ dean. It was a very difficult experience for me. I was missing my family, friends and my home, and here I was as a missionary, trying to show the girls who Jesus is. In the beginning I honestly did not feel like loving these girls at all. However, I really experienced how Jesus changed me as I was asking Him to do so. The times when I had been with Jesus and once again realized more of His great love for me, were the times where I could go out, filled with compassion and love for these girls, because I had experienced and was so overwhelmed by Jesus’ love for me.
If you want to show compassion, don’t try to do it on your own. Spend time with Jesus, focus on His great love and care for you; take time to study His compassionate character and let your heart be drawn to Him in thankfulness. Then His healing love will begin to flow out from your life to bless the people around you.