Passionate Homemaking

Welcome to the recap of chapter 6 of our book study on The True Woman by Susan Hunt, brought to us by Marliss Bombardier, a sweet godly woman in my church. Read on for a challenging call to compassion!

This life, there­fore, is not right­eous­ness but growth in right­eous­ness, not health but heal­ing, not being but becom­ing, not rest but exer­cise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are grow­ing toward it; the process is not yet fin­ished but it is going on; this is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified.-Martin Luther

“For God’s covenant family to have a vital pres­ence in cul­ture, there must be com­mu­nity and com­pas­sion in the Chris­t­ian home and in the church…women are essen­tial for com­mu­nity and com­pas­sion to flour­ish. Women are essen­tial to create the family atmos­phere where truth can be heard, absorbed, and then reflected within and with­out the walls of the church. This does not con­strain women. It unleashes us to do what we have been designed to do.” pgs. 127-128

Women are essen­tial to build com­mu­nity and to extend com­pas­sion as avenues for His truth to be heard. How uplift­ing, and yet how hum­bling. Do we regard this role as essen­tial as God regards it? The new woman has no time for com­pas­sion, no time to build com­mu­nity, no time for anyone but her­self, others as they per­tain to her­self, and her own self­ish ambi­tion. And that ambi­tion doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily have to focus on the work­ing world-​it can be hidden in the heart of a stay-​at-​home Chris­t­ian wife and home­school­ing mother as well.

I wanted to sum­ma­rize this chap­ter because com­pas­sion is some­thing that God has used the last few years to grow in me. A woman who knows her own mind and is com­pe­tent and intel­li­gent some­times has trou­ble under­stand­ing why others cannot quickly dis­patch with trou­bles and prob­lems like she does. But “Whom the LORD loves, He chas­tens, and scourges every son [and daugh­ter] whom He receives.” Heb. 12:6

God, in His great mercy-​and it is a severe mercy, as the woman wrote in the tes­ti­mony at the begin­ning of the chapter-​has granted me trou­ble that I cannot quickly dis­patch. Trou­ble that is not of my own making, just like the ill­ness of the woman in the tes­ti­mony, and like her, I can also say, “In gen­tle­ness and kind­ness, God has opened my eyes to my own sin as a con­tribut­ing factor to much of the strug­gle I experienced” and still experience.

Covenant Compassion

“The word com­pas­sion is from the Latin words com, which means with, and pati, which means to suffer. So it means to share a deep feel­ing or pas­sion with another person.” pg. 128 In the last chap­ter, we learned that God is our Helper, our ezer. pg. 107 God designed women to be helpers, so women are nat­u­rally drawn to nur­tur­ing rela­tion­ships in com­mu­nity through com­pas­sion. Rather than dis­dain­ing our role as helper, we should embrace it, and use the gifts and tal­ents that God has given us to relieve the pain so preva­lent in our fallen world. “We should find great free­dom in unleash­ing this com­pas­sion­ate side of our being into the arena of min­istries and mercy.” pg. 129

Susan Hunt goes on to say, “What is even more astound­ing is that God equates know­ing Him with being com­pas­sion­ate to the poor and needy.” And then she asks an intrigu­ing question:

“What will happen if Chris­t­ian women are moti­vated and acti­vated by a covenant under­stand­ing of com­mu­nity and com­pas­sion and a clear con­cept of bib­li­cal wom­an­hood to infuse com­mu­nity and com­pas­sion into our homes, churches, and communities?”

My church is only about 10 years old, so we are still learn­ing how to express com­pas­sion in the com­mu­nity, not only of faith, but the sec­u­lar com­mu­nity. We seek to show the com­pas­sion of Christ by per­sonal out­reach to friends and neigh­bors, by min­is­ter­ing to the poor and home­less, and by polit­i­cal activ­ity. We have sent mis­sion­ar­ies to the field and helped plant churches. Many fam­i­lies, even those who could be look­ing for­ward to an empty nest in a few years have adopted mul­ti­ple chil­dren. Per­son­ally, I am free to be open and honest about the refin­ing fire in which God has placed me, and in turn, share deeply in the sor­rows and joys of my sis­ters in Christ. I know that other churches do more and better than we do, but I also know that this is not the cul­ture in many churches. So the ques­tion remains…

Women Who Changed Their Communities for Christ

Susan Hunt gives two beau­ti­ful exam­ples of women who changed their com­mu­ni­ties for Christ. The first is Nancy McGlock­lin, a woman who lived in the Allegheny Moun­tains of south­west­ern Vir­ginia in the late 1800’s. In 1866, an itin­er­ant Pres­by­ter­ian pastor was riding through the moun­tains and came upon a poor cabin. On hear­ing that the woman who lived there was sick, he stopped and prayed for her. The first Sunday she was able, Nancy McGlock­lin walked six miles round trip to the minister’s church.

Nancy McGlock­lin was 47 years old, and did not know how to read. She learned to read in a children’s Sunday school class, and was given a Bible. Soon she was taking her chil­dren, then other chil­dren, to church. Over time, Nancy’s hus­band and chil­dren came to know Christ as Savior. Grad­u­ally the com­mu­nity cleaned itself up, social ills began to dis­ap­pear, and people started to talk of want­ing their own church. That church is still in oper­a­tion today. Nancy McGlock­lin “understood the cen­tral­ity of the church in her Chris­t­ian life. Her spir­i­tual growth took place in the church, and her min­istries flowed from the church [to her family and] to the community.” pg. 131

The second exam­ple is from Susan Hunt’s own church. The son, Miles, of one of the fam­i­lies devel­oped AIDS. The whole church drew together in com­pas­sion around this family, but one woman, Judy, was espe­cially touched by this family’s dis­tress and became the hands and feet of Christ for them. “Compassion is a com­mu­nity affair. In a prac­ti­cal sense, every­one does not do every­thing; but in a spir­i­tual sense, we do.” pg. 134

During Miles’ ill­ness, when he lived with his par­ents, Judy became like a member of the family, bring­ing food, flow­ers, spe­cial treats, dri­ving Miles to appoint­ments, and antic­i­pat­ing and meet­ing needs. Judy’s extrav­a­gant love gave her cred­i­bil­ity with Miles as she spoke to him of his need for Christ, and she was blessed by seeing Miles come to faith before he died.

Clogging and Unclogging the Channel of Compassion

“There are many things that clog the chan­nel of com­pas­sion: anger, unfor­give­ness, a root of bit­ter­ness, emo­tional pain, lack of confidence… Some women even say the men in their lives are the deterrent.” pg. 134 The men can be in author­ity, in charge of resources or means of relief, or they may be work­ing side-​by-​side with us to meet a need. Men and women are dif­fer­ent, and God designed us to meet needs in dif­fer­ent ways. We should work together, aware of our God-​given dif­fer­ences, and not work against each other.

The truth of the matter is, the only thing that can clog the chan­nel of com­pas­sion is sin. Not some­one else’s, but our own sin. So often we see our own need for com­pas­sion due to cir­cum­stances, or some­one else’s sin against us as too over­whelm­ing to allow us to feel com­pas­sion for another. In real­ity, our cir­cum­stances, or another’s sin against us are ways that God teaches us to feel com­pas­sion for others. He com­forts us that we may be able to com­fort others with the same com­fort. II Cor. 1:3-4.

On top of that, someone’s sin against us can be God’s way of lead­ing us to feel com­pas­sion for that person. “Love your ene­mies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spite­fully use you and per­se­cute you.” Matt. 5:44

Cir­cum­stances and people may redi­rect the flow of compassion-​which is an essen­tial role of women-​but only our own sin­ful­ness can stop the flow alto­gether. Repen­tance is key to loving others, reach­ing out in com­pas­sion and reveal­ing the glory of God to a hurt­ing world.

Discussion Questions

1. Are there cir­cum­stances or emo­tional pain in your life that God is using to develop your facil­ity for com­pas­sion? Is there some­thing block­ing your abil­ity to be com­pas­sion­ate right now?

1. How do you show com­pas­sion? To your family? To your church family? To the larger community?