A Superficial Compassion

 "They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace," when there is no peace."

Healing a wound lightly. It's such an interesting concept.

In a society without God, the best humans have to offer each other is affirmation. We can tell people that they are okay, we can accept them, and we can try to let our friendship and presence heal any wounds they have. And some kind of healing is possible here.

But only it's a light healing -- a superficial restoration that leaves the source of infection working beneath the surface.

Jeremiah says in that same passage that these people feel no shame at all for what is wrong. They do not even blush.

So in this lighter healing, a sensitivity has been lost. Mutual generosity is functioning more as anesthesia than a presciption for wholeness.

That's when God cries out, "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."

God rejects the healing humans are offering one another --immediate emotional comforts in a shameless society. He rejects a culture of mutual affirmation and says, "Come through what is uncomfortable to what will bring lasting rest."

He calls them back to Himself -- the authority, and the power, and the truth that they have rejected.

This is why modern conversations on tolerance and compassion tend to be distorted. Yes, humans can offer a sort of topical generosity to one another.

But if our generosity prevents people from walking through repentance, sorrow, and even pain that leads to the rest a holy, living God offers, we have been harmful in our best attempts to heal.

Photo credit: MorgueFile