I'll be honest... I'm lacking in quite a few areas. I especially struggle with empathy (though my wife is training me...). Perhaps that's why when I came across this writing of Henri Nouwen it really struck me.

"Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken... [Unfortunately we often] ignore our greatest gift, which is the ability to enter into solidarity with those who suffer."

Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

When I think of compassion I typically think of the agency through which I sponsor children overseas. I think I have a lot to learn about what this looks like day-to-day on the home front...

My prayer is that I would continue to become more and more a person who can enter into suffering alongside those who are hurting, and that my heart would continue to break for what the Lord's heart breaks for.