Rocket Fuel

A woman shared a story with me recently.  Apparently she was shopping at a local store making her purchase of pasta noodles and garlic mushroom sauce, when the young woman working the register engaged her in conversation.

“Looks like Spaghetti is on the menu for tonight!”

“It sure is.  Imagine my surprise when I went to get it started and didn’t have the noodles or the sauce!? I have a pan of browned burger but nothing to go with it.”

“I know that! I don’t have either in my pantry either. Looks like you will be feeding quite a crew, two boxes of noodles and two jars of pasta.”

“Not really, I just like to buy two of each so that I actually have it in my pantry for the next time I want to make spaghetti.  Not to mention, it is often a little cheaper to buy two of each than just one of each, I like to try and save whatever money I can in this economy.”

“Tell me about it, I can’t even afford one box of spaghetti and one jar of pasta.  As of now, I have nothing…nada…not a cent to buy groceries.”

The woman didn’t know what to say. She finalized her purchase and walked out the doors to her vehicle.  She climbed in, started the engine, dropped the transmission into reverse and pondered at the grocery bag next to her. 

She didn’t take her foot off the brake, she just sat there, looking at the bag…thinking…filled with compassion.

Making up her mind she set the vehicle back into park and killed the motor.  The woman reached into the bag and removed one box of noodles and one jar of sauce and walked back into the store.  She walked straight to the checkout area and placed the two items in front of the clerk and said, “I want you to have this.”

“No! you don’t need to do that!”

“I know, but I want to and even more so I want YOU to have them.”

I don’t know that either of these women said anything else to each other or not, but the impact is clear.

It was clear to me as to what led to this exchange…compassion.  One person had compassion for another.

Compassion is like a match that ignites transformation. Compassion leads to reconciliation. Compassion is the catalyst that takes the Good News…the Gospel into the entire world. It is the rocket fuel for evangelism. 

In Matthew 9:35-10:8, Jesus sees the crowds of people and he has compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd.  They are lost and wandering.  His compassion is a catalyst for change.  It is what motivates him, motivates his disciples and transforms those who will put their trust in him. 

Are we ready, to allow the compassion that we have received overflow in our testimony as we live our lives for him.