Why does compassion seem to bloom during the holiday season, and how does it tie into celebrating Christ's birth? As we unwrap Christmas's true meaning, Jeff, Bob, and Christa challenge you to reflect on these intriguing questions. We dig into the profound Christian belief in God's ultimate act of compassion—gifting the world with Christ. Yet, we question why such amplified kindness seems to be a seasonal phenomenon and advocate for a shift towards nurturing compassion as a consistent lifestyle, not a holiday exclusive.
Join us, as we journey deeper into the heart of compassion, demystifying misconceptions about acts perceived as compassionate, and emphasizing empathy as a core element. In the chaotic rush of the holiday season, we inspire you to seize opportunities to demonstrate true compassion, alleviate others' suffering, and bring genuine kindness into everyday life. Let's together strive to keep the essence of Christmas alive all year round, celebrating God's gift of compassion through Christ in our daily interactions.
Why does compassion seem to bloom during the holiday season, and how does it tie into celebrating Christ's birth? As we unwrap Christmas's true meaning, Jeff, Bob, and Christa challenge you to reflect on these intriguing questions. We dig into the profound Christian belief in God's ultimate act of compassion—gifting the world with Christ. Yet, we question why such amplified kindness seems to be a seasonal phenomenon and advocate for a shift towards nurturing compassion as a consistent lifestyle, not a holiday exclusive.
Join us, as we journey deeper into the heart of compassion, demystifying misconceptions about acts perceived as compassionate, and emphasizing empathy as a core element. In the chaotic rush of the holiday season, we inspire you to seize opportunities to demonstrate true compassion, alleviate others' suffering, and bring genuine kindness into everyday life. Let's together strive to keep the essence of Christmas alive all year round, celebrating God's gift of compassion through Christ in our daily interactions.
On today's episode.
Paul Snamiska:Welcome to the Life Challenges Pod.
Christa Potratz:Hi and welcome back. I'm Krista Potrez and I'm here today with pastors Bob Fleischman and Jeff Samuelsson, and today we're going to have an episode that is going to be reflective of this time of year and we're going to be talking about Christmas compassion. During the holidays especially, we have a lot of opportunities to maybe show compassion to other people, and it does seem to be just kind of part of the season culture too. There's places that ask for more donations during this time of the year because they feel that people maybe just are a little bit more generous, or it's the season or the Christmas spirit. I mean last year we did do an episode on the Christmas spirit too, and so I mean I guess maybe just kind of starting, what is it kind of about this time of year really that plays on people's compassion?
Jeff Samelson:Compassions are really appropriate thing to be talking about at this time of year, because, as Christians, we understand that the greatest act of compassion that there ever was was God in heaven, looking at miserable, sinful humanity and saying I'm going to send them a savior. That was feeling our disastrous situation and saying I'm going to do something to alleviate that, and he sends a savior. That's the ultimate in compassion, and so, just as the habit of giving gifts at Christmas was a reflection of the gift that we received from God at Christmas, so also because we, as Christians, recognize God's compassion to us, it's natural, then, that this would be a time at which we would show compassion as well.
Bob Fleischmann:One of the things that always strikes me is this high level of nostalgia and tradition that comes out at Christmas and trust me, I am like the number one nostalgia tradition guy that there is. And in fact at our home for mothers I make a big deal for the staff to really reinforce traditions around Christmas, because one of the benefits of strong traditions or family traditions is that even when a family becomes fractured during the year, it's a good time to bring them back. There may have been a falling out in the family but you know, every Christmas we always gather at moms. She's going to be expecting us, so even people at odds with each other sometimes will find cause to come back and hopefully work at burying the hatchet and so forth. So on the positive side there's those good things. On the negative side is that we tend to treat it like a once a year thing and you know I've always been.
Bob Fleischmann:I participate in the toys for tots and the food drives and so forth. We, diane and I both participate in those things, but we think I think that it's a grave mistake to treat it like a one off thing and it gets a lot of attention. It's a little bit like here at CLR I always tell everybody you know we get 25% of our support in the last two months of the year just everybody, because there's generosity and so forth. The reality is the need is there 12 months a year. The same thing applies to the food drives that we do at Christmas. The same applies to the parenting things and getting gifts and so forth that we try to help out with those who are less fortunate, that they still have those needs year round. And I think you pull the stop out. Pull the stops out at Christmas. You do those things, but it has to accompany a strategy that says how can we keep this going? You know what can I do? That's more than just the one shot a year.
Christa Potratz:When Jeff was talking to about how just the Christmas story shows us God's compassion and his love, and then just that idea of giving gifts and everything you know I can see like with Christians and stuff, but it also seems to like permeate our culture too. So I guess my question is why do non-Christians also seem to be more willing to talk about compassion and to show that during this time of year as well?
Jeff Samelson:To some extent they're cheating. What I mean by that is they're taking as universal values things that are really Christian values, that have permeated the culture and in many cases they're rejecting what comes really only from Christ for Christians. But they're saying oh no, this is for everybody. But you know, if you were to look at history, you know you'd say, or even take an evolutionary biology point of view. You know it's like well, there's no reason for this otherwise. But compassion feels good. It certainly feels good to be the one receiving compassion, but it can feel good also for you as the one who shows it. But as Bob you know was mentioning how it tends to be just a once a year kind of thing like compassion can also be kind of tiring it's work.
Jeff Samelson:So it's kind of nice to only you know, to have this one time a year where everybody's feeling warm and nice and friendly and everything like that, and you do something nice for somebody and you get nice feelings back from them. But it's nice because it's again just that one time of the year and you don't have to put yourself out there in the same way the rest of the year.
Christa Potratz:How, as Christians do, we maybe kind of fight that in a way to show compassion throughout the year and have it not just be the one time a year, type of thing?
Bob Fleischmann:Well, I think it first of all begins with, you know, when you look at what Christmas is, which is the celebration of God's gift of Christ, and technically we do celebrate that year round, but it takes a forefront position even in our celebration of Christmas, because what oftentimes gets the forefront position is I got to get the meat for the meal and we got to make the salads and so-and-so was going to bring this, but then they changed it and they were going to bring the muffins and they forgot. And you know, those all kind of begin to replace the forefront. When we opened up New Beginnings in Colorado back in 1993, you know, I just made a big deal about the traditions of Christmas and Easter and so forth, but like a year or two before we relocated it to Milwaukee, so around 2012 or 2013,. Heidi, who was she's been on this podcast Heidi did something that I had never seen or was aware that they were, or maybe she started it could do and that was we had done.
Bob Fleischmann:All of these people had donated all of these wrapped presents for our mothers and children at New Beginnings, which was wonderfully thoughtful. It looked wonderful all under the tree and they sent me pictures. But then they sent me a video and I got that video floating around here someplace. But there's Heidi Crossleg. It's sitting on the floor and she said, before we open up any of the presents, we're going to read Luke 2. And she read Luke 2 and at the very end of that one of the residents said I have never heard that. Now she's heard of Christmas and she's probably heard of Jesus, but never heard the story. And I, you know, I learned a long time ago that you can't take for granted what you think people know about things that we strong Christians know, and that might even be the birth of Jesus. I'll tell you a little story. I may have told this on a previous episode.
Christa Potratz:So you know we've talked about the whole message of Christmas and how that shows God's compassion. Are there other things from Scripture where we really learn about compassion?
Jeff Samelson:You look at the entire plan of salvation. I mean that's rooted in God's compassion. There's an interesting word that is used in the Greek. I'm not going to butcher the pronunciation of it on this podcast, but it's used of Jesus many times in the Gospels. He looked at the crowds and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. The root of the word literally has to do with one's inner parts, one's entrails, and saying that that's where this feeling begins. So it's figuratively meaning a very deep feeling, and we have an approximate equivalent in English when we say I really felt that in my gut.
Jeff Samelson:But the idea of compassion is that you're feeling along with someone or you're suffering along with them. Basically, in terms of its construction, the same as the word sympathy. So we see Jesus, who is our model for living, that he doesn't just say, oh, this person has a need, and intellectually assess that he feels it and feels it deeply. And so certainly to the extent that we try to imitate him, we're going to want to also feel deeply alongside someone, with someone, in whatever they're experiencing.
Jeff Samelson:When we see people but in the epistles and the practical parts of those Peter, paul, james they all use that same word, or similar word, to tell us, as Christians, that we should have compassion on other people. And again, it's the same idea to not just be satisfied with the idea of, oh, I already know what they need, but to actually feel it with them. Just try to put yourself inside their situation. And it's meaningful when you're on the receiving end of that. It means a lot, it's powerful for that, but it also means that, when it comes to the step that follows, which is what can I do to help, we're going to be doing so in a much more informed way, a much more sensitive way, and I want to say that's the Christian, christ-like way.
Bob Fleischmann:I have always wrestled with the distinction between compassion and sacrifice. I always seem to come out where they're almost synonyms. They seem to be the same kind of thing. For example, if they take your coach, you give them your shirt. They tell you to walk one mile, you walk two. They require sacrifice. You've got Philippians 2, in humility, consider others better than yourself. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also the interests of others. And then, in verse 5, it says your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Peter said in his first epistle Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.
Bob Fleischmann:Compassion is, as I get older, compassion isn't an event or an occasion. It's a lifestyle. When you talk about what Christians can do, is you try to make it a lifestyle? I used to always tell the story about when we had the holidays at the Fleischmann home. My mother always had this thing about finding the widows and the widowers and having them over To the point where you see them in all of our family pictures and stuff. They were like part of the family.
Bob Fleischmann:But my point is is that not only were they there for Christmas or Easter, but they were there for birthdays, they were there for dinner just on a Friday night or whatever.
Bob Fleischmann:It just became a normal thing, kind of a habit, and I think that when we look at what we do at Christmas and sit down and just say, what did we do at Christmas that genuinely helped someone I agree with what Jeff was saying you do feel good for doing it, but if you look at the other person ahead of you, you just say what did I do for Christmas that genuinely helped someone? Now, how can I translate that into something I can do year round? But you've got to accept the fact that it involves sacrifice. In my thinking, sacrifice and sacrifice itself needs some defining, because sacrifice isn't just giving out of your plenty. It literally means sacrificing. In other words, I was going to do something with my time or I was going to do something with this amount of money, but now I'm going to do this with it for the sake of others, and I think that's a mentality that's very hard to learn and to practice, and we're still working on it.
Jeff Samelson:Yeah, and even getting aside from the heavy word of sacrifice and back closer. You talked earlier about having a habit of doing certain things. It's just a reminder that sometimes, well, we don't have Christ's perfect knowledge and wisdom, so we're not going to automatically know exactly what somebody needs when they're suffering or in need. So it may require work on our part to find out what it is they need, or to do some research or be persistent and saying yeah, I know, I asked you three times already how I can help and I'm actually serious, so I'm asking a fourth time. Compassion is not going to be something that's just going to be a, you know, flip the switch. Okay, I did that and now I'm done Something that's going to take some effort.
Christa Potratz:When we think about Christian life resources too, you know what are ways that compassion is really central to the work being done here at Christian Life Resources.
Bob Fleischmann:Well, you know, it's a lot more than just telling people what not to do or what's wrong, but trying to help them live with making the right decisions and helping people. You know, I remember very early on one of the earliest episodes, jeff made the comment once you know, life is messy. And that really just kind of keeps ringing in my head as I'm planning, you know, I'm in the budget process for next year and all that kind of stuff and life is messy. So when you're helping people it's never clean cut. You help people and they're never as appreciative as you think they would be. They never. Sometimes they don't even look as deserving as you kind of imagine them to be. And then I try to remember that you know no place at all in scripture and all of the directives on thinking and caring for others. Did anyone ever have to fill out a form to qualify? You were to always feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty and visit the imprisoned. I mean, even think about that. You visit the imprisoned. You're in prison because you did something wrong, but you visit them, you know. In other words, you don't measure the caliber of the deservedness, because that's where you begin introspectively. You've got to look at your own heart and you've got to say do I deserve anything that God has given me, let alone Christ himself?
Bob Fleischmann:I always like to point out I just preached locally here this past weekend and I always like to point out this is exactly what I do, it I've used it multiple times. I'll say I've preached in hundreds of churches over the last 40 years and I said in every church you do the same thing. I said now you're close. I could have been here last week, I could have been here the week before, I could come here next week and I'm willing to bet in the service you're going to do the same thing, you're going to confess your sins. Now the question crosses my mind Didn't you mean it last week? You know why are we doing this week after week after week after week after week.
Bob Fleischmann:And it's because at some point you've got to realize that I'm never living up to the standard, that I know that God would want me to live up and I sorrow over my sin. I said once you grasp your own unworthiness, you know your own sinfulness. I said then you begin to start thinking more of others, like we do at CLR and we do at New Beginnings, and the thing is, you're not going to always be thanked. They're not going to always live up to the standard you think that they should live up. They're not going to always be appreciative enough, but that's irrelevant. Why? Because I'm not, and I'd like to leave with the image of Jesus hanging on the cross and reminding people that he still says forgive them because they don't know what they're doing. And he's saying that about me, and that's what we've got to keep in mind.
Jeff Samelson:Yeah. One other thing that comes to mind, I think worth pointing out regarding life issues and compassion, is how many what we might say anti-life practices and policies and attitudes that are out there are promoted to everyone as being compassionate, when in fact they are anything but Well. We should let women who are in desperate situations have abortions, because that's the compassionate thing to do. This person has been in a coma for two weeks and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better. The compassionate thing to do would be to end his life. This lady has been suffering horribly from this disease for a long time. She feels really bad. She doesn't want to live.
Jeff Samelson:The compassionate thing would be assisted suicide, but none of that is actually compassionate. Yes, it is feeling something, but it's not feeling the right thing, and your goal really is to put someone out of your own misery, so to speak. I don't like seeing that, so I'm going to end it. It's not compassionate to increase a mother's guilt by pushing her into an abortion or to sever her risk with her child. It's not compassionate at all to take the life of an unborn child. It's not compassionate to imagine that, just because you don't think you would want to live a certain way, that you should end the life of somebody else or permit them to end their life. It's just important to understand that true compassion always wants what is best for the other person, and that can't be death.
Bob Fleischmann:And I think that that's a big thing to recognize is that Christians have the definition, the true definition, of compassion. Just because other people want to use the word to describe another activity doesn't make it valid. We have the true definition and if we practice it, hopefully it rubs off on a few people.
Christa Potratz:So, as we're kind of closing out here too, I want to give our listeners some maybe practical ways that they can do compassion or show acts of compassion throughout the year. I definitely agree too. I think, bob, you mentioned it like just being a lifestyle choice and just kind of doing that all throughout the year. So what are some things that people can do throughout the year?
Jeff Samelson:Well, charity work, donation to worthy nonprofit causes and things like that that's a good and worthy thing. One thing that I usually point out about that is that you think about kind of strategically. If everybody, including non-Christians, is giving to this cause, then maybe that's kind of covered, and maybe, as a Christian, you should focus on the things that are not being covered by everyone. And that means keeping your eyes open to get out of your own busy little world and see others as much as possible. See them as they really are and in the situations they're really in. And so it's not just going to be about giving. It's going to be having compassion on the overworked retail worker at the store when you're shopping.
Jeff Samelson:It's going to be having compassion on the overwhelmed parent that you work with, or the student in your home or your classroom who has all sorts of tests and papers and things do before Christmas, and the person in your church or your neighborhood recently lost a loved one and it's going to struggle to find joy in the holiday. These are people to have compassion on, and, again, it may take a little work to push yourself into that and such, but be looking for that, keep your eyes open and feel with them and don't be afraid to feel deeply yourself. I mean, some people are like, well, Christmas is all supposed to be about joy and I like feeling good, so I don't want that depressing stuff anywhere near me. Well, you're going to get even more joy from feeling deeply with that other person because you'll be making a difference and be helping them feel joy at Christmas time. Think about how you can relieve their suffering. You know, it may be something really small, it may be something pretty big, but be open to that.
Bob Fleischmann:And chances are, if it's easy, you could do more. Compassion is you know, it requires emotion and it requires inconvenience a lot of times, and if you find yourself keeping a safe distance and not really feeling inconvenient, there's much more you can do.
Christa Potratz:Yeah, and I would just also add, to pray for opportunities too, because there are so many opportunities out there. Sometimes I often hear people say like, well, I'm just, you know, too busy to kind of do something like that right now. Could be just as simple as checking on your neighbor across the street that you know has health issues, or something just like that. That doesn't maybe take a lot of time or isn't as grand of a gesture as you think you know you need to do when it comes to compassion. All right, well, thank you so much for this discussion today and we thank all of our listeners, and if you have any questions on this topic or any others, please let us know. You can reach us at podcast at ChristianLifeResourcescom. We'll see you back next time. Bye.
Paul Snamiska:Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Life Challenges podcast from Christian Life Resources. Please consider subscribing to this podcast, giving us a review wherever you access it and sharing it with friends. We're sure you have questions on today's topic or other life issues. Our goal is to help you through these tough topics and we want you to know we're here to help. You can submit your questions, as well as comments or suggestions for future episodes, at lifechallengesus or email us at podcast at ChristianLifeResourcescom. In addition to the podcasts, we include other valuable information at lifechallengesus, so be sure to check it out. For more about our parent organization, please visit ChristianLifeResourcescom. May God give you wisdom, love, strength and peace in Christ for every life challenge.