Have you ever been in a situation in which you were going through personal issues and needed to be alone, but other people came along and you were “compelled” (forced, really, since they’d already shown up) to help them through their issues first and put your own problems on the back burner? With that, I’ve probably described every single day of your life! I mean, when was the last time any of us really got to withdraw from the grind of life to tackle our own personal issues without disturbances? When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. – Matthew 14:14 Jesus had just learned that his cousin had been unjustly beheaded because an incestuous pedophile king couldn’t keep his pants on. Having made promises to his step-daughter who, for all intents and purposes, was a stripper for this king, Herod cut off the head of John the Baptist and brought it to his party on a platter– literally! Just imagine the angst, the anger, the sadness that probably had filled Jesus’ heart. He and John had grown up together, and had probably spent holidays at the same relatives’ homes. Jesus admired John, and was baptized by him. John witnessed the power and glory of God through Jesus. They were more than close: they were family. So Jesus goes away to be alone, but people just won’t allow him the time to heal and mourn for John. Jesus teaches us something important about life here: if you’re in the middle of retreating and healing from your own suffering yet people go out of their way to seek you out amidst their own afflictions, then you must meet them. Does that take your grieving or healing out of the periphery? It absolutely does. But here’s the key to loving other people like yourself: have compassion. Jesus had compassion for the people: He hadn’t feel sorry for them, because that’s totally different. Jesus had compassion, an emotion embodying understanding through love and expressed through a meeting of hearts. We need to stop meeting ourselves and filling ourselves for our sake; instead, we need to start meeting people where they are. People will go out of their way to seek you out: have compassion, and walk with them through their healing. I’m not saying that we have to meet every person who brings to us every insignificant problem that they’d caused: problems that, if desired to be corrected, could easily be controlled. Please use your judgment: you don’t have to meet people to entertain stupidity. However, we can’t ignore others and their real issues just to deal with our own: we need to have compassion, and meet with them. Have we been ignoring people and their issues? Have we failed to meet people where they were, because we wanted them to fix themselves before coming to us? Remember: that’s not how we came to Jesus. Let’s not forget that.