Compassion Is Not Weakness | Mornings with Mico

Good people, happy AM man, how we doing today? My name is Miko and this is Mornings with Miko. The mood is a little different today. I'm gonna just be real with you. My heart is extremely tender right now. Our church is hurting right now. We just lost somebody on our team and I'm sharing this with you one because we definitely view everybody that watches Crossroads DuPando as a part of our church. So letting you know, you know, as a part of our church, like, hey, this is what we're going through right now. A lady on our team, she just gave birth to her daughter about a week ago and her and her husband, she's young, healthy, maybe mid thirties or something like that. Her best is like right behind mine. Like we joke and talk every day, man. Just one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life. And she gave birth to her daughter and then came home and like two days later had a fever, went back to the hospital. And then that next morning, didn't wake up, she passed. And it is just like, it's one of those things. I got the news last week and it's one of those things that really just so confusing. Just how abrupt it was, how like this was just such a sweet lady, like no health issues, no, just a sweet, kind lady. And I'm sitting in like the, how abrupt it is.

And then also like, now you got a widowed husband with three daughters and a newborn. So like, how do you manage sitting in the excitement and the joy of having this daughter? And then also the loss and grief of your wife. But then even after you move past it a bit, now this is just your new norm in life to live like this, man. And it's just, it's wrecked me, right? It's wrecked our team. There are some people who were like super close to her. Not like I didn't, I wasn't as close to her as some people were. But one of the things I'm noticing is the more and more I walk with God, the closer I get to God, the closer he's growing me in compassion. Before I move on to the message, I wanna welcome you to, if you wanna write, if you wanna send cards, my name is Jenna. If you wanna be in prayer with us and for us, like, please do, please do. I would love to just have a number of letters and cards from our friends and family that's incarcerated across the country writing in or whatever, just so I can like send that to her family and the team that she works on and everything, man. Like, that would be cool. But so yeah, feel free to do that if you so feel led to. But as I was processing this week, man,

I was just reminded of this passage in scripture, the shortest known passage in scripture, the shortest verse, it's Luke, it's in Luke. It's probably in a few of the different, what is it, a few of the gospels. Actually, this one is John. This is the one that's in John. It's John 11, 35, and it's Jesus wept. And I think those two words, right? Like, that's the whole verse. And sitting inside a story where Jesus already knows how everything turns out, right? He knew Lazarus was about to walk out the grave, that he was about to raise him from the dead. He knew death wasn't gonna get, you know, the final word. He knew resurrection was only minutes away. You know what I mean? Not even years away. Like, he knew that the resurrection was literally about to happen. And yet he still stopped and he wept. He sat in that grief. He sat in that pain, that compassion, right? John says that he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled, right? That's one of those phrases, like, if you don't know, it carries heat to it, right? That's not a polite sadness. That is a grief with some anger in it, aimed specifically at death.

Like, he had resentment and anger specifically towards death when his friend Lazarus died. And it tells me something, right? It tells us something, that love doesn't rush past somebody's pain just because it knows how the story ends. And I'm reminded of that because even as, like, I was sitting in a car, like, two days ago, thinking about this, I kept trying to put myself in the mindset of like, okay, but Jen is in heaven now. Jen is in heaven. And while that's true, I still was like, that does this a disservice. Like, yeah, she's in heaven, but still, right now, there's a heaviness to this. I think that we're called to sit in that heaviness. We see Jesus too. We see Jesus sit in the heaviness here. Jesus wasn't merely aware of everybody's grief around him from like, you know, far. Like, no, he was up on it. He was right up in it with them, man. He stepped into it and he got into it right there with them. It got into him. He sat there and he, and he, and he wrestled with that. You can see it again outside of town, called name. Jesus walks up on a funeral going in the other direction. Like Jesus is going one way, the funeral is going in a different direction. And a widow who's burying her only son, he understands, you know, like what that means. Like if, to give some context, like a widow burying her only son, she, she had already buried her husband. And this boy like, wasn't like, this boy was actually like her last covenant. Like this was as a widow, like you, you, you have no rights. You have no, there's no come-ups for you in life after you've buried your husband. Now your son is like your means of survival and it's your provision. It's your name in the town. Like all of this is, is, is like through by way of your son. So when they lowered them, everything that she had left went in the ground with them. When they, when they lowered that,

that, that, that, that, that son into the ground, everything that, that any significance of her life, it's being lowered in that ground too. And in Luke chapter 7, 13, it says, and when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. I want to notice something, something that I noticed here is the order that Luke gives us. Jesus didn't first see the problem and try to fix it. He didn't see this as a problem to fix. Like he understood, you know, what this meant, this, this, this widow burying her only son, he knew what this meant, but he wasn't, he, he didn't, he didn't go into it like, okay, how do I fix this? How do I help this person? He didn't see this as a problem to fix. He saw a woman to love. The compassion came before the miracle. And then he did something that nobody else in the crowd would do. Right. He actually reached out and touched the coffin. Back then contact with the dead made a man that was clean, unclean under the law. You don't touch unclean things. You didn't, it's unclean. It's been, it's passed to you, right? But Jesus, he touches it anyway. He touches the coffin anyway. And the direction switches instead of the, the, the, the unclean being transferred to the clean, the clean is transferred to the unclean, right? Instead of the death being passed to the life, life was then passed to the death and the boy was resurrected. Something that I recognize is that this is just a pattern with Jesus all throughout his life. This is a pattern. He heals because he was moved. He fed because he was moved. He welcomed the overlooked because he was moved with compassion, with empathy. The miracles were never the engine in and of themselves. His heart was the engine. It was always his heart. That's what moved the compassion in his heart is what led him to do the miracles. It wasn't the miracle. It was never necessarily about the miracles. The miracles were just what happened when that heart, when the heart of God, when Jesus's heart got close to somebody that was hurting, that's when the miracles would happen. There's a verse in Hebrews. It says that he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Here's why that verse matters right now, right? It says exact imprint. This means that Jesus isn't like a, a, a, a version of God sent to make the father look better, right? Like after you read all of these different things in the old Testament, you may have this, you know, misconstrue, you know, picture of, of, of God. Jesus isn't here to try to be this softer image, you know, to just kind of, you know, like, like, like, like damage control or whatever, right. Or, or, or like PR control,

like, no, like Jesus is the exact imprint of God. He is what the father is like. That's, that's at his core. That's his nature. So when Jesus weeps, that's the heart of God weeping. When Jesus is moved with compassion, that's the compassion of God. When Jesus welcomes somebody that the crowd has already wrote off, that is exactly how the father receives them. Let me touch on that. I started to just use, I started to just bypass that, but the thought. A thought popped and I got a question Who has the crowd written off that the father wants you to welcome and receive? I? Was having a conversation with a guy in a federal prison the other day that I went to go visit and he was talking about how he has a sex case and how How like, you know Prison politics, right, you know, there's a culture in prison. So with a sex case, you know, you certain things you can do certain things You can't do Remembering like even even people who you know identify as homosexuals in prison There's still a certain way to move and operate in prison, right? and I Think naturally like being in prison like you're going to adopt those same mindsets a lot of times you adopt that same culture and I feel As I was challenged even as I was having a conversation. I feel led to also challenge you in this moment to to actually Identify that and and and and Bring that to the forefront Who who who who around you Somebody that that although the crowd may write them off God may be calling you to to interact with to to show compassion to Are you available to be moved by compassion towards somebody around you that everybody else may write off? Right, maybe because of their crime maybe because of you know, just prison politics, whatever the case may be I'll leave you with that and I'm gonna keep going. I know a lot of us we carry, you know We carry this version of God who sees us and who watches from a distance Like arms folded waiting for us to get it together

That's not the God that we're reading about in this text right here The God in this text he has tears in his eyes. He has dirt under his nails And he walks toward the funeral instead of around it. He's not worried about the way that he may be perceived Because the law the culture is It tells us that no, that's unclean you can't go around that or you'll become unclean Love doesn't just rush past your pain just because it already knows how the story ends right, that's It's not that's not that's not God it's not how he operates He calls us to sit and be moved with compassion whether it's the love of you know, a friend a co-worker whether it's whether it's Dealing with loss dealing with grief whether it's seeing someone around you hurting, you know, or being mistreated We're called to go towards it not around it And I want us to talk turn that like toward ourselves We usually think that becoming like Jesus means, you know Knowing a bunch of scripture or watching the daily devotional, you know, or you know Sharpening our theology or just being kind and serving more people. But well, yes those things do matter I want you to miss this one that becoming like Jesus also means growing in his compassion to grow in empathy to be in the image and likeness of God is to be a Representation a reflection of that compassion of that of that of that empathy of that care It means letting your heart get interrupted by somebody else's pain Something that may not necessarily Have anything to do with you but yet it's something that somebody is experiencing and you allowing yourself you being interruptible to actually Reflect God's compassion to them in that moment And I know that Especially where you are. That's gonna cost you. I'm not I'm not naive to that I know that's gonna cost you filling things is a liability in a place where we're noticing, you know it gets you involved right and and and and Involvement can be expensive one way or the other. I got I know the rules very well rule number one mind your business

Point blank period ain't got nothing to do with me. Whatever's going on over there ain't got nothing to do with me I get that that's not Kingdom That is not Kingdom. Let it wrestle with you. That's just not Kingdom. That's not how he's called us to operate job Growing numb Being cynical minding your business being passive being nonchalant all of that that may protect you and may guard you that may keep you out of Stuff or whatever it may do all of that for you, but it also keeps you from becoming like him Because he does not call us to sit on the sideline. He calls us to be moved with compassion just like him You cannot be moved with compassion and be hardened at the same time One of them gotta go That's just that's just the way it is y'all so today Don't just ask god for more information Don't just read the bible to To to get more information about god. I want you to ask him for his heart Ask him to make you the kind of man the kind of woman that still notices Who sees the guy the girl that stopped eating or the one whose mail stopped and now they you know looking a little low The one who hasn't figured out, you know where to sit yet Am I allowed to watch tv over here or or is that table for for them? Or can I like the be the person that notices them and is moved with compassion? That noticing is not weakness y'all that noticing That's our family resemblance That's how people know That's how people know we relate it That's how people know like like like like oh, you must be a son of god. Oh, you must be You know what i'm saying like that's how that that's that's our family resemblance that's as wherever we go This is who we're called to be That's how we are identified. That's how they recognize us y'all I want to leave you with a few questions. I want to leave you with some things for you to um,

For you to take and and and sit with right I always tell you take this go to the feet of jesus, right? Me I journal So that's why I kind of try to leave you with something that's a journal prop something for you to um For you to sit and process this with First one is where have you gone? Particularly on purpose, right? What were you protecting when you decided to stop feeling it? What area of your life where have you decided that i'm just going i'm just going it is what it is You know, uh, you know, it's out whatever I ain't tripping whatever wherever you go nonchalant intentionally, what were you actually protecting? Second we know that jesus wept even though he knew the ending I want you to be real with yourself Jesus being the exact imprint of god Jesus wept shows us god's compassion god's feeling The god that you pray to Do you believe that he actually feels your pain? Or that he's just there for you to pray so he can manage it Be real, what do you think what are you believing? Where have you where are you missing the mark? Yeah He doesn't just manage your pain he actually feels what you feel he feels the pain that you feel Third who around you within 20 feet is hurting One person Name one thing that you can do about it today identify that person Be on the lookout for notice that person And what can you do about that today It's all I got