As I look at the climate of our country right now, something that strikes me is we are a people in need of compassion. We need to give it to others but we also need to give it to ourselves. I want to show you a verse in the Book of Exodus and the reason I love this verse so much is that you can scour the whole Bible and this is the place where we get God's clearest self-definition of himself. His clearest introduction of Himself is found in this passage and this happens when Moses says, 'show me your glory' In response, God takes his man, Moses, and He tucks him in the cleft of a rock and says, "My goodness, my glory will pass before you." (Exodus 33:19) This is what He says, this is God's self-disclosure:

"The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

Do you know what sticks out to me so much about that? God said compassion first! We typically tend to prioritize by placement what's most important to us. So when I tell people who I am, I'm first off a Christian, a wife, a mom, and then a radio broadcaster at 90.9 KCBI. I list things in order of importance to me and God said compassion first. He didn't list His Holiness, He didn't declare himself judge over all even though He could have. He didn't even say He was the Creator of all, He said, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God."

We see this reflected in His Son as well because, in Matthew 9:36, it says:

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." - Matthew 9:36

I know a lot of us are nervous and I know a lot of us are angry. I know a lot of us don't know what's around the corner today, tomorrow, or in two months. But let's be a people who have compassion because we have a God who shows compassion on us!