COMPASSIONATE CARING by Ravi Kapoor
COMPASSIONATE CARING by Ravi Kapoor on facebook:
Once I was traveling on a bus and I was attracted to a young person who I felt had emptiness in his life. He looked so dejected and lonely. I spoke a few words to him and gave him a bookmark with my address on it, which said:
“I CARE FOR YOU!
Are you lonely, troubled, rejected, forsaken, depressed? Do you need someone to listen to you? Do you need a friend to pray for you? Has someone you trusted let you down? If so, you have a shoulder to lean on. I am available to help you for once I was lonely, troubled, rejected, forsaken, depressed and Jesus met me at the point of my need. HE CARES FOR YOU ! ”
One morning soon after this, I heard a knock at my door. There stood this young man whom I had met on the bus! He said that the bookmark touched him and he felt he could open his heart and share his pain with me. He shared with me how he had left his house and come to Bangalore and was staying in the waiting room of the railway station. He wept and told me about his pain and agony. He was emotionally disturbed. He said he was forsaken, rejected, with no one to care for him. His own parents never cared for him. This young man, Mark, said “For much of my life I have been on a search for my identity, a quest for belonging.”
Mark was staying in the waiting room of the railway station. He shared with me that one night as he was on his way to the railway station, it started raining and he wondered how he would reach the station without getting soaking wet. He saw a church in the distance and went into it, and met the Pastor. He asked if he could stay the night in the church. He said, “‘The pastor spoke to me for 20 minutes and then sent me away with a prayer.” What he needed right then was God’s protection and provision, displayed through the pastor of that church. He did not need a sermon… but a place to stay.
One writer said, ‘I was hungry and you formed a club to discuss it. I was in prison and you stayed in church to pray for me. I was naked and you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick and you thanked God for your health. I was homeless and you told me about heaven’s streets of gold. You seem so holy and so close to God, but I am still hungry, lonely, cold and in pain. Does it truly matter to you? [Matt 25:35,36]
All I could do was listen attentively to him and weep with him as he wept and at the end give him a hug. It was a spontaneous gesture. I felt how he had missed out on of the love of a father. I told him how I was very close to my own earthly father, who loved me very much, but he died when I was very young. That shattered me. All along I was hungry for love. I remember when my father died, at the funeral service I looked at his dead body and felt, “Oh, I will always miss his loving embrace!” I was longing for my father’s love and I missed it so much.
I was hungry for love and deeply mourned the loss of my father’s love…yet how my Heavenly Father embraced me! And oh, what peace, satisfaction, inner healing and rest I found in Him…in His embrace!
Mark was in tears as he listened to my words…and they went straight to his heart.
We should let His love touch others. I love the words of Fawn Parish, “You do not need any special credentials, any talent, or any paperwork. Do you love Jesus? Do you know Him? All you really need are two arms and two lips. Your arms are needed for embracing and your lips for telling your personal story. How has Jesus been faithful to you? He will love the unlovely through us.”
I just wrapped my arms around this young man Mark.
Catherine Booth, a vibrant woman who co-founded the Salvation Army with her husband, frequently visited prisons. One day as she entered a prison, she noticed a woman at the end of the corridor who was violently resisting being put into a cell. Catherine immediately proceeded down the hall toward her. As she went she thought, “What can I do? Maybe I’ll give her a Bible? No, she’s too upset to read right now. Perhaps she might need some money? No, money will not help her. Before Catherine had fully settled in her mind what she was going to do, she found herself face-to-face with the matted-haired young woman. Instinctively she kissed her on the cheek and then walked away. The next day when Catherine returned, the warden told her she had to go visit that woman they had booked the previous day. This woman kept asking, “Who was it that kissed me? Who was it that kissed me?” Catherine found her and asked gently, “Why do you ask who it was that kissed you?” The woman hesitantly replied, “When I was a baby my father left my family. We lived in a damp tenement basement, and my mother caught tuberculosis. When I was seven my mother died. But before she died, she took me in her arms and kissed me. THAT WAS THE LAST TIME BEFORE YESTERDAY THAT I KNEW ANYONE CARED.” Sometimes unlovely people are just a kiss away from God.
The only thing I could do to help Mark’s situation was to ask him to stay with me and instead of sermonizing him, I wanted my life to be the sermon. I gave him a set of my house keys to make him feel loved. Mark said, “How can you trust me with your house keys? You don’t know me! What if some things go missing from your house?” I told him that the things at home are not at all important to me…but HE IS! This brought Mark to tears. “I’ve never had anyone do anything like that for me- ever- in my whole life. I am a total stranger and you treat me like your friend, as your family member.” I love the words of a dear man of God: “There are routes we must travel to conquer inner space. You may have to go via the stomach, the wallet, the mind, or various other routes- whatever is necessary to get to the heart.” Whatever is necessary, as Bill Miliken comments, to ‘earn the right to present Christ.’
He stayed with me for a few months and the love of Christ transformed his life. It didn’t take a sermon or preaching on my part, but God’s love shown practically, through me. I remember one night Mark never came home and I was waiting on the balcony. He didn’t even call to say he would not come and I was worried. I couldn’t sleep that night. Now tell me, who was Mark to me? I met him on a bus, gave a tract… God brought him to my house and now he’s become so dear to me that I am worried about him. That’s HIS LOVE OPERATING IN ME. The next morning Mark showed up and I shouted at him saying, “Don’t you know how much I was worried? Why didn’t you call? Where were you?” Mark was so touched, feeling so nice that he is loved, and that someone actually worried about him. He said, “My own parents were never concerned about me. They didn’t care where I was. How is it then that you love me so much?” Mark knew the pain of not being wanted by his family. I told him that this was the love of Christ. I told him, “You are God’s beloved.”
I remember I used to make his bed, give him breakfast, then leave for the day. I’d leave enough food at home for him to cook and eat whatever he liked. Later that night when I returned home I’d share the day’s experiences with him -all the Lord did in and through me on that day. Then I’d pray for him. One day he told me, “You never preach at or counsel me, you just treat me nice and love me… and that impresses me so very much!” I love the words of Bill Milliken, “People want your heart. But we have to give our hearts with no strings attached. We can’t say, I’ll love you if you’ll come my way, if you believe what I believe. If you follow Christ, then I’ll love you. We must remember He loved even those who did not love Him.”
Michele Perry said, “It is in this place of knowing Him that I become His love encounter to the world around me. I have nothing to give apart from that. It is a call of compassion where I live in Him and He lives in me. It is there in that place of knowing His love that I can become His embrace to others.”
Mark was a hurting child, with much anger and hate. Oh, how he shared all he went through. I FELT I WAS CALLED TO LOVE HIM OUT OF ALL HIS HURTS AND PAIN!
l love the words of Michele Perry as she ministered to a child in deep pain, “Hate cannot stand in the face of love. The answer was to love her past the place of her pain and oppression, to become the face of His love. So we held her and loved her and dodged her swipes. We blessed her and loved her and sang over her. One week, two weeks, three weeks. Love takes time. It is not to be hurried. Love stops. Love is patient. Love suffers long and perseveres. We entered into the high worship of laying down our sleep, laying down our meager time alone, laying down our desires and even some of our needs for the sake of another. We died. Oh, did we die. But as we died, little by little she began to live. How did freedom come? Gradually, in an instant- I do not know. But one day she was different. One day she was so filled with love that the evil had no more room. Love cost us, but it was worth more than we could ever give.”
Mark stayed with me for a few months and the love of Christ transformed his life. He had a dream of having a orphanage for children and today… with much prayers, he is running a home for the children! Look how God works! Once Mark ran away from home and he received the life changing love of the Lord and now He picks up children from the streets who have no home! He is burdened to show the love of Christ to these children who are without a home, and care for them. God is using him in an amazing way! ALL GLORY TO THE LORD!
As I travel, I meet many precious people- each with a unique story. People are crying for genuine love- love that heals, that encourages! My heart is SO hurt for the lost and the broken-hearted people and I love to wrap my arms around the broken hearts.
Oh, may our lives be ALL ABOUT LOVING JESUS AND LOVING PEOPLE! LET OUR LIVES SHINE HIS LIGHT.. SHINE HIS LOVE!
I would like to close with the words of a man of God…
More of His voice in my ear
More of His tears on my face
More of His praise on my lips
More of his death in my life
More of His toil on my hands
More of His hope in my grief More of His fruit in my service
More of His love for the lost.
By Ravi Kapoor
ravikapoor7@gmail.com
A facebook friend, Brenda Rogers, in a comment to the above post shared this:
Psalm 110
Messiah, King and Priest
King David’s Psalm
¹Jehovah-God said to my Lord, the Messiah:
“Sit with Me as Enthroned Ruler while I subdue Your every enemy.
They will bow low before You
As I make them a footstool for Your feet!”
²Messiah, I know God Himself will establish Your kingdom,
As You reign in Zion-glory.
For He says to You: Ravi,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies!”
³Your people will be Your love offerings
Like living sacrifices spilled out before You!
In the day of Your mighty power You will be exalted,
And in the brightness of Your holy ones You will shine,
As an army arising from the dawning rays of a new day,
Anointed with the dew of Your youth!
⁴Jehovah-God has taken a solemn oath,
And will never back away from it, saying:
“You are a priest for eternity, My King of Righteousness!”
⁵The Lord stands in full authority,
To shatter to pieces the kings who stand against You
On the day He displays His terrible wrath.
⁶He will judge every rebellious nation,
Filling their battlefield with corpses,
And will shatter the strongholds of ruling powers.
⁷Yet He Himself will drink from His inheritance
As from a flowing brook;
Refreshed by love He will stand victorious!