Why is Compassion Important?
Seven core operational values guide all aspects of The Salvation Army in Canada & Bermuda.
Why is compassion important? Because every life has worth.
Seven core operational values guide all aspects of The Salvation Army in Canada & Bermuda.
Compassion, one of these values, states that the Army reaches out to others and cares for them.
“The Salvation Army is passionately committed to caring for people who are struggling, believing that all persons are infinitely valuable and equally worthy,” says Commissioner Brian Peddle, Territorial Commander for The Salvation Army in Canada & Bermuda.
Compassion in Action
The Salvation Army shoulders one of the biggest responsibilities in the world today— to meet human needs and be a transforming influence in communities—and compassion is at the heart of what they do.
Merriam-Webster states compassion as: sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.
The ministry of compassion involves doing something about it. For The Salvation Army it might be:
• Washing the feet of a homeless person
• Giving a dictionary to a new immigrant
• Helping an alcoholic onto an ambulance stretcher
• Giving a frost-bitten homeless teen a pair of boots
• Driving a former addict to a job interview
• Providing a sex-trade worker a safe, warm place to sleep
Bernard knows what The Salvation Army’s compassion means to those in need. The 44-year-old father of three lives alone in a run-down apartment. His financial struggles have brought him to The Salvation Army food bank. “Sometimes it gives me goose-bumps thinking about what the Army does,” says Bernard.
His children live with their mother. When their weekend visit approaches, Bernard’s visit to the food bank gets them enough food to get through the weekend. “The Army doesn’t make you feel like you’re down and out because you are here,” says Bernard. “They don’t turn down their brows at you. It’s all about the smiles you get.”
Having compassion doesn’t cost a penny and helps someone make those difficult times a little less dark.
