Animal Instincts

Jude 10 “ But these people scoff at things they do not understand.  Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction.”

OK so My dog just spent a good part of the day chasing a fly around the house - and loving every minute of it.  He can’t help it.  No matter how we try to help him remain calm when there is a fly in the house, he goes bizerk. The only way to stop him is to either distract him with his first love, food, or throw him in the bathroom and close the door.

If we are honest with ourselves I think most of us can say that when something is driving us crazy, at times it is almost desireable.  Saying that it rained during our vacation isn’t enough, it had to have poured - and if we were lucky, there was a tornado.  We can’t just have a lot to do this weekend before company comes, we must have a thousand things to do and company must not only be coming early but be the difficult kind that are hard to please.  A co-worker may tell a story similar to our own experience but for some reason ours is always worse.  Why is that?  Why do we feel the need sometimes to “out-suffer”?  Do we think it makes us seem stronger than we are?  Is is because we want so much to impress our audience?  Do we do it for the sympathy?

I once very clearly heard this question in my heart, 

“Why do you want sympathy - you already have my Compassion.”

I had been going through a really hard time (not just a hard time - a really hard time) and would not be consoled.  I wanted my anger.  I needed my pain.  I refused to loosen my grip on my sorrow.  If I told you what had happened you would have agreed with me.  I had a right to be angry, a reason for sorrow and of course I should be in pain.

When our loved ones are in these deep dark places.  We want to crawl in with them and console them.  Not because we ourselves want to be in the hole too but because - if we really love them - we want to help them come out of it.  How much more our Wonderful Father.  He loves us deeply and as good as it feels to have someone validate our pain and frustration, He is not about leaving us in the hole.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t validate someone’s feelings.  Feelings are very real.  But friend, I have no desire to heap more mud on you just because your stuck in the mud.  I am about helping you out.  Yes, you are  full of mud and it looks smells and feels horrible!  But all the sympathy in the world will not get you out of the mud.

Sympathy can help the “outsider” relate to the “victim” and connect in a way that can equip the outsider to help the victim.  But that is all.  It says, “I see you and you need help”. Sympathy does not deliver.

Compassion on the other hand is action. It says, “I see you and I am going to help you.” Compassion is harder to swallow sometimes. Compassion reaches a hand out with intent to rescue.  When that hand is God, there is no way rescue will not happen unless the victim refuses to be rescued.  What keeps a victim from receiving help?

Fear.