Compassion is that you know you may do the same thing if you were the other person. You won’t try to fix people in your schedule or ways. You may just feel the pain as others and cry with them to God in prayer. As a result, you can relate to that person and do the same thing with him/her. Like Jesus knows Mary’s sadness over her dead brother, Lazarus, so Jesus cried with her (see John 11: 32-35).
However, empathy is you think you understand the other person’s need based on what you want others to treat you, so you do that action to others, not based on what he/she truly needs, but what you need. It’s proud to assume what others need just like you do. It’s like parents often tell kids what to do, not out of their need, but out of the parents’ own guilt: if they don’t tell kids what to do, they feel they are not responsible for being a good parent. It’s for selfish satisfaction, not for understanding their kids.
Who can truly know what others need? Only God who can see people’s hearts. Therefore, the true compassion is humbling self in front of God and ask God for His understanding about the situations, and then act based on God’s guidance. On the contrary, if we are proud, we will presume or assume what we know and what we should do and act on our own judgment.
The difference of the outcome is: when you have God’s compassion, you are humble and have peace and depend on God for His own solution and provision. The steps you may find you are doing:
1. Understand and accept who they are now.
2. See who they really are in God’s eye.
3. Pray for them according to God’s will and trust that God is love and willing to save them.
On the contrary, if you have humane empathy, you may feel self-righteous and condemn others who don’t do the same like you do. Other people who are helped by you to release from the pain of the temporary issue may suffer longer for not knowing what their true problems are.
Pray for the people who don’t know how to pray according to God’s will. Meanwhile, cry with them and point them to God’s living hope, Jesus Christ. Until God’s way is revealed, then keep hope in God for knowing that He allows all things to work for good for those who love God and be called by God.
