Lord, let me see people through Your eyes today.

While I can’t describe what I saw around me as extreme poverty, I did see the effects of a developing nation where most people lived on a day-to-day basis, just one catastrophe away from poverty. 

Old people sitting on the market steps, hoping for a scrap of meat for their soup; children shining shoes in the plaza instead of studying; a blind man playing his homemade flute, counting on a stranger’s generosity to provide food for the day.

I wanted to feel compassion for these people, but I usually just felt guilt - guilt that I came from the land of plenty where problems like these could be “fixed,” while the people here were the ones who actually needed help. 

It all seemed so unfair, yet I knew that God himself had chosen when and where every person would be born. (Acts 17:26) So rather than bend under a burden of guilt and despair, I asked God to help me see these people through His eyes. 

As I boarded the combi to the market that day, I was hesitant to look outside because I would see the beggar with his twisted foot - a foot that could have easily been straightened if he had been born somewhere else. But as we passed his customary corner, I glanced out the window and the strangest thing happened. Instead of the usual guilt that washed over me each time I saw him, my heart was flooded with love.

That’s when I understood that true compassion is based not on grief over someone’s pain, nor on guilt over what I have that he doesn’t. True compassion is based on love. Jesus demonstrated this perfectly during His ministry by having compassion on the crowds who surrounded Him because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. His compassion flowed from His love for people, and it overflowed as He provided food for the hungry, cast out demons, healed the sick, raised the dead. 

By turning my eyes from guilt and directing them toward love, God made compassion a more attainable quality in my life. And 1 John 2:6 tells me exactly how I can reach that goal:

“Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” (NLT)