And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
Nehemiah 1:3-4
From a very young age, John G. Paton felt the call of God on his life to be a missionary. While still a boy working to help support his family, Paton would spend his meal breaks reading and studying the Bible. During his time of training in both seminary and medical school prior to leaving for the Pacific Islands, Paton was actively involved in the work of his church. The story goes that one day he invited several boys to come to Sunday school, but one protested that he was too ragged and did not have a coat. Paton simply took off his own coat and walked inside with the boy. Many years later, long after Paton had become a famous missionary, a Sunday school teacher told that story to his class. One of his students stood and declared that the story was true—because he was the boy who had received the coat and been saved under Paton’s ministry.
All around us there are people who have needs. Some of them are physical or financial. Some of them are personal or relational. Some of them are spiritual. All of those needs could be viewed as a problem or an inconvenience. That is the way the disciples responded to the massive crowds who came to see and hear Jesus. Rather than viewing them as a vast crowd of people in need, they wanted to shift the problem to someone else. “Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat” (Mark 6:36). The problems of people around us should fill our hearts with compassion.
