Overwhelmed with Compassion

I could feeling it building all day yesterday... A sense of sorrow for people who are suffering. I could literally feel the grief of people in various situations. In particular:

• People who have been waiting and hoping for an answer that hasn't come yet. Or maybe the moment has already passed. You needed the miracle, but now it's too late. I broke down in uncontrollable tears last night during the 5:00pm service as I tried to speak hope and life to you. The story that was on my heart for you is in John 11 when Jesus purposefully delays, allowing Lazarus to die.
  
  The truth that you need to hear is that God wants to do something in your heart that's more important and deeper than we can imagine. Like He did for Mary & Martha, He wants to give you a hope that transcends life and death.
  
  
• People who have experienced massive failure and aren't sure they can continue. Shame and hopelessness want to take over your life and get you to quit. But God didn't allow you to fail to shame you, but to shape you. Don't allow your pride to rob you of the life He wants to bring you. It is incredibly painful to admit failure. Again, I fell apart crying in the 7:00pm service last night as I was speaking to this group of people. But you can embrace that pain and allow God to use it.
  
  What did God accomplish in David through his failure with Bathsheba? Would Peter have been such a compassionate leader if he hadn't come to grips with his own weakness when he heard the rooster crow? What was shaped in Moses during those 40 years in the wilderness after murdering the Egyptian?

I'm curious to see what the Lord will stir up for us in this morning's service... Also, I was interested to read Don Miller's column in the Sentinel yesterday. It lined up with what I was feeling for all of us. Sometimes God's plan involves suffering... but He wants to redeem that pain, bringing it meaning and purpose that will resolve into something beautiful.