Compassion is a Verb

Hey team. It’s Workshop Wednesday and here we are, halfway through the month. It’s almost halfway through. Can you believe it? Anyway, I wanted to let you know I read this quote. Susan Sontag said, “Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action or it withers.“

That got me to think. I never thought of compassion as a verb. But what good is compassion? If you feel sorry for somebody and where they’re at or a situation or something and that’s all you feel, well, that’s sympathy. That’s not showing compassion. You have sympathy, not necessarily compassion

Compassion is an action that is brought out in a person. Compassion is a verb.

It’s because of how they feel about wanting to see change happen for somebody else or something else. To have compassion for somebody.

As we just come out of Easter week, it does dawn on me that God had compassion on us. That’s why he sent…Here I am, getting a little bit preachy, but I’m sorry. You know, it’s who I am and what I do. But I think about that. He showed so much compassion that he sent his only son to die on a cross for the sins of the world. That’s showing compassion.

I think about some of the things that we do and the way we show compassion on the job. The way that we deliver that compassion in tangible ways. Not just through sympathy, not just through feeling because it’s really an unstable or useless emotion if you don’t have action that’s put to it. I think that’s kind of a cool thing.

It’s reminding me every day to remember to put action to my compassion for team members and for my family. For my boys, for my wife, for my family, for those around me, for my community. Let’s work our compassion out through tangible results.

We’re valuable in what we do because we’re compassionate because we care.

I think that’s one of the things that sets us apart. I think that’s why we’re hiring so many people and I think that’s why we’ve been given so much favor. Some of our contracts, they’ve recognized that we have more than just a do-the-job mentality. Put in eight and hit the gate. That’s not us. We show compassion and we work that compassion out through a tangible result of value and I think that’s an awesome thing.

All right, Workshop Wednesday guys. God bless you. Have a beautiful exciting and wonderful rest of your week. I’ll see you next week and remember to be valuable because you know nothing less will do. See you next week.