Love That Always Leans In

Whenever we see suffering, it marks us. And while we can’t fully put words to the age-old question of why suffering exists or why it comes to innocent people, we can certainly agree that we know it when we see it.

The first time I saw suffering up close was when I was six years old and living in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Our family was strolling through the central plaza after dinner when I noticed a woman placing sheets of cardboard on the sidewalk. It took me a while to grasp what was happening, but then I realized she was making beds for her children to sleep on that night.

I still remember the troubling emotions I felt as I got into my comfortable bed that same night. There was something very wrong with the disparity between that woman’s situation and mine, and it marked me. After that, I couldn’t go to the plaza without asking my dad to give me all his change so I could give to the poor who we continued to see. I had to do something.

I’m sure you have your own encounters with suffering, and you remember how it marked you too. The question is not whether suffering exists—it does. Instead, the question is what we will do with it when it crosses our path.

Growing up in the developing world, I couldn’t avoid seeing the suffering of those living in poverty. Combined with my work at Compassion, I've come to realize that there are only two strategies when any of us are confronted with suffering.

First and very commonly engaged, people use the “look the other way” strategy. But the problem with “looking the other way” is that the best part of the heart that God gave us will begin to die. We were created to care for one another.

Thankfully, there’s another strategy we can choose when we’re confronted with suffering. The other one stands in direct opposition to looking away. This strategy is to “lean in.” 

Leaning in—it’s what God did when he saw our suffering. He refused to look away. Instead, he sent his Son, wrapped in human flesh, so we could have life. The Early Church did the same thing, and it was radical. Every time they encountered suffering in the world, they refused to look away. They gathered daily to learn, pray and ask:

• How can we help?
• How can we serve?
• What’s ours to do?

And so, orphanages were established. Hospitals were built. Soup kitchens were set up. The marginalized were warmly welcomed as people leaned in, generation after generation.

When love wins the day, looking away isn’t an option. Because love, as it turns out, always leans in.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” — John 13:35

When we allow suffering to touch our souls, it changes us. Such was the case with a young evangelist named Everett Swanson when he traveled to South Korea in 1951 to minister to the troops serving in the Korean War. There were many things that could have stirred his heart on that trip, but it was the plight of the orphans living on the streets that touched him the most deeply. And as he leaned in, the ministry of Compassion International began to take shape.

As I now look back over Compassion’s more than 70 years of history, if we have enjoyed any success at all, it has been attributable only to love. We can refine systems. We can improve measurement capability. We can recruit and retain the best talent the world has to offer. And yet the reality is this: without love, it’s all for naught. If we’re known at all, I want Compassion to be known for love and for Jesus, who so perfectly modeled what love looks like in a broken world.

Love like that of Jesus runs toward the need, not away from it—linking arms, joining forces, resolving to stay. It’s a love that always leans in.

Looking away is not an option. The time is now—to love. Won’t you join us?