A Compassionate Invitation

 

Last week, at CRT, Amy Boucher Pye led a session in which she encouraged us to read the account of the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24, and see what jumped out at us.

We were probably all struck by different things, such is the richness of the Bible.

For me, it was the words in verse 29, where the couple invited Jesus in.

They’d spent time with Him, knowing His presence, and still they invited him in.

Awareness of Him was not enough for them.

They wanted more.

The NIV says they ‘urged him strongly, “Stay with us….”’. They were desperate for His company.

As Christian writers, do we ‘invite him in’ when we write? Are we desperate for His company? Stay with me….

 

I use live captions in online meetings, and my life is littered with typos. The typos are often gems, not rubbish; I learn a lot from them.

‘Be kind and compassionate’ (Ephesians 4:32) came up the other day as ‘be kind of compassionate’.

Half-hearted compassion.

Do it to an extent.

 

In my experience, the compassionate thing to do for myself when I write (it even comes before ‘feed myself chocolate’) is to invite Jesus in.

Moving further into awareness of Him by inviting Him.

Do I always remember? Do we always remember?

If we don’t, I suggest we slip into being ‘kind of compassionate’ to ourselves.

And I think we warrant our own true compassion just as much as anyone else does.

 

I’ve recently been editing my manuscript; not my favourite part of the writing process.

Was I compassionate to myself as I edited?

I would say yes with a bit of no thrown in.

No: I wore my fingertips away by taking my feelings out on my keyboard as I bashed away at it. My poor fingers.

Yes: I invited Jesus in.

I would like to say my invitation was a gracious; ‘Would You like to join me in this delightful task ahead?’

Perhaps it should have been. Maybe next time. More edits to come.

It was more a less-than-gracious; ‘Come on then, let’s do this.’

And He RSVPd yes.

‘So he went in to stay with them’ (Luke 24:29b)

He always RSVPs yes.

He always stays.

Is He there, in whatever situation we find ourselves, because we’ve invited Him?

Be kind and compassionate….