True compassion means not only feeling another's pain but being moved to help relieve it.
03327 – True Compassion
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03267 – Scripture, Not Feeling
A genuine experience of the Lord is based on Scripture, not our feelings, but that does not mean that our feelings are unaffected. We are so afraid of feeling these days that it has become almost the unpardonable sin to say 'Amen' [in church]. We are not saved because...
03213 – Night vs. Day, Happy vs. Sad
There are just as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in a year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
03193 – Building Bridges of Suffering & Joy
A few years ago, my son attended the funeral of a classmate whose life had been tragically cut short by an automobile accident. Though Stan did not know him very well as they were both relatively new to the school, he said the boy was “soft-spoken and very kind.”...
03187 – Fall in Love with Life
Too few people ever truly fall in love, which makes me sad. I think it could be because they are forever looking for the perfect partner who will finally rescue them and make them happy. They don't realize that no one can "make you" happy. A person can wait their...
03123 – Literalism…or Not
[On finding depth of meaning and experiencing transformation in Scripture: literal or *literary* truth…] If literalism is your bridge to Jesus, if it is the only way you access Jesus, then I promise you: I am not trying to take it away from you. I just hope that you...
03108 – That Great Unending Story
In the wilderness of grief, God provides narrative manna — just enough shape and meaning to keep us walking — and sends the Comforter, who knits together the raveled soul and refuses to leave us orphaned. Sometimes the bereaved say they are looking for closure, but in...
03025 – Essential of Daily Life
For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction...