Marco Salazar spoke in this week’s chapel. He began by helping us consider that we already understand what it means to wait with anticipation. We have experienced it in waiting for a diploma, waiting before your wedding day, or waiting for Christmas morning. In the same way, we also wait in anticipation for Jesus’ return. But while we understand waiting with anticipation, we may wonder how compassion fits in the equation of waiting.
Starting in Matthew 9:35-36, Marco took us through a number of passages where we saw Jesus moved by compassion to meet people’s needs. (Compassion is defined as a deep sorrow or sympathy for someone and it’s normally accompanied by a deep desire to alleviate that person’s suffering.) Compassion was the fuel and bedrock for Jesus’ ministry. As we watch Jesus experience compassion, we quickly realize that compassion is not an end in itself. It moves one to corresponding action.
When is the last time you felt compassion such that it moved you to action? What breaks your heart and fills it with compassion? What will you do?
While we wait for Jesus’ return, compassion must move us to action.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Marco Salazar is a graduate of GRTS. He is married to his lovely wife Kari and together they have one daughter named Ariana and are expecting a baby boy in April. Marco has over 10 years of experience in full-time ministry. He has recently partnered with the Association of Related Churches (ARC) to plant Radiant Church in Bay City, Michigan, this September.
