Matthew 14:13-14 : He had compassion on them.

"Now when Jesus heard this (the beheading of John the Baptist), He withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by Himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed Him on foot from the towns. When He went ashore He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them and healed their sick...."

(Matthew 14:13-14)

Possibly, a time of personal mourning cut short by the demands of ministry.

I don't think that this verse should be used at all costs to back up the claim that all Christians should get involved with some sort of ministry (church- or non-church based) even while we are dealing with grief, bereavement, burnout, illnesses ... or other major life stressors. While some are able to compartmentalize their lives and continue working the fields (I am certainly not always able), it is all right to want to take some time off to retreat, receive care, grieve, recuperate and deal with any emotional baggage that we may carry from trauma. Jesus Himself withdrew to grieve over the death of His cousin.

Rather, I was drawn to the phrase "He had compassion on them...."

Compassion. Such a beautiful word! He didn't have to, but He wanted to. His motivation to reach out to the people of the crowd was driven by His sorrow over their suffering and a sincere desire to relieve their pain... rather than a sense of obligation to be necessary and relevant to the consuming world regardless of His own needs. Empowered by love, Jesus laid aside His right to mourn in order that the sick could be healed that day. Love was not merely His obligation. Love was who Jesus was (and is).

Jesus was in fact, to be the expression of God's love for the world - the Gift - while we were yet sinners (cf. John 3:16, Romans 5:8).

If Jesus is love, what does it mean for us to grow in Christlikeness?

Perhaps then, the focus for us, Christians, should not be on how much we can grow in loving and giving... but how much we can grow in being Love itself - God's gift(s) to the world. Christlikeness is essentially not about doing - and forcing ourselves into a "good" mould. It is not about striving to be who we are not. It is instead about being - becoming the men and women God has intended us to be, as we yield to the Spirit, whose gracious presence and workings evidence God's love for us.  We love and give because we were first loved and given... and thus, formed into signs and instruments of God's love to an unknowing, cynical world.

This is my desire... to be formed into an instrument of God's love. As an instrument, say a violin, cannot be fulfilled unless it is fiddled - let me not be fulfilled unless I love, even the tiniest bit. And fret not, I shall grow in loving naturally, as I open myself up more and more to receive Christ - to be flooded with the light of God's redeeming love - in every nook and cranny of life.

Indeed, Emmanuel... God is still with us in our failings as well as our sufferings; Christ still has compassion on us today and helps us.

And we, fellow heirs with Him, cannot help but grow in sorrow for the great crowd before us.