compassion

Snark is cool. These days we celebrate it when someone gets “totally shut down” by a nasty comment, or “destroyed” by a critical statement. Usually when this happens, the poor person isn’t anywhere around. It’s easy to win an argument with someone who isn’t there, especially when everyone else in the room is on your side. Even so, we admire the people who are able to verbally gut others.

The problem with that is, it doesn’t leave us anywhere to go when we have needs. When we choose our friend based on their ability to wise-crack or skewer people with witty, pointed comments, then our friends by definition aren’t going to be very good at caring and nurturing.

That’s why God’s people make better friend. We Christ-followers might be less interesting or fun, but we’re much better support. Look at this, from 1 Corinthians 1:3-4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

Our God is the God of compassion and comfort, and one mark of his people is that we’re compassionate and comforting. Snark may occasionally come out of our mouths, but when that happens it’s because we’re trying to be like other people, not because we’re reflecting our Maker.

It’s a reminder to me to be a compassionate person, and to hang with compassionate people. Christians, in other words.