Today we're exploring something often overlooked in our results driven world. Compassion in a culture that celebrates toughness over tenderness, and sometimes views empathy as weakness rather than strength. Compassion can seem like a liability, but what if it's actually essential to effective leadership, whether you're leading a team, a department, or an entire organization. The Biblical perspective on compassion can transform not just how you lead, but the culture you create. Let's see what God's word says about leading with a compassionate heart. Colossians chapter three, verse 12 says, put on therefore as the elect of God. Holy and beloved. Vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness long suffering. What a powerful instruction about the character we are called to embody. This verse reveals something important about human nature. We can easily become indifferent to others' needs. It's easy. Notice Paul's language. He doesn't say you already have these qualities, so just keep expressing them. No, he says, put on these attributes like clothing. You deliberately choose to wear. This suggests that compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, they're not our automatic default. They're choices. Choices we make, and that's especially true when we're leading. Think about the pressures of leadership. There's a weight to responsibility and urgency in the deadlines. There's stress of the targets we're supposed to hit. There's complexity of all these different relationships to manage, and there's constantly a demand for us to make some type of decision. Under these pressures, it's easy to become focused on a task rather than focused on people to see team members as resources rather than individuals. Come here, do this, do that. To value productivity over wellbeing, our own and others. This indifference can show up in subtle ways. Rushing through one-on-one meetings dismissing emotional concerns is irrelevant. Feeling personal challenges as just distractions from the real work, responding impatiently to questions more to mistakes, and then making decisions without considering their human impact. But Paul reminds us that God's chosen people, holy and beloved, as those who've experienced God's compassion firsthand, we're called to clothe ourselves differently, to deliberately put on. Bows of mercies, which is the King James way of describing deep gut level compassion. So what does this say about us? While in deference may be our default under pressure, compassion, that's our calling. And bridging that gap requires intentional choice, daily decisions to see, feel, and respond to the needs of those we lead. What does this passage reveal about God? First, it shows that God calls us to clothe ourselves with compassion. This isn't just a suggestion for when you have extra time. It's central to our identity as God's people. God doesn't call us the qualities that don't reflect his own character. Compassion isn't just something that God wants from us. It's something that God demonstrates to us. Every day throughout scripture, we see God described as compassionate. Exodus 34 verse six declares him merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant and goodness and truth. Psalm 1 0 3, verse eight says, the Lord is merciful and gracious. Slow to anger in plenteous and mercy. This compassion isn't just a feeling God has. It's an action that he takes. He doesn't just observe and sit back and watch our struggles from a distance he enters into them, he responds to them. The ultimate expression of this is Jesus, God, and human flesh experiencing our pain, carrying our sorrows, bearing our sins on the cross. That's compassion in its purest form, and it tells us something vital about God's leadership style. He doesn't just lead from cold detachment. He leads from caring, caring, engagement. He doesn't prioritize task over people. He values people even when it costs him everything. So how do we apply this understanding of compassion to our leadership? Well, first, let's practice active listening. Compassion begins with attention. You can't respond to needs you haven't noticed. Active listening means being present. Not checking your phone during the one-on-one, ask clarifying questions. Don't assume that you Well, I understand what they mean, and acknowledging feelings, not just the facts, resisting the urge to immediately solve or dismiss a problem. Part of that active listening, this kind of listening doesn't just gather information. It communicates value. It says that you matter enough for me to focus completely on you right now. You know, it's an interesting thing when you, when you talk to people who meet the presidents of the United States, regardless of their party, almost to a person, every single person says that they feel like when they're talking to the president, even in a room full of people, that they feel that ultimate focus, that that person is totally connected to them. Shouldn't we at least be able to offer that as Christian leaders? So try this in your next one-on-one meeting. Challenge yourself to listen 80% of the time and speak only 20%. You might be surprised by what you learn, not just about the person, but about your organization. Create margin for compassion in your life. Compassion requires space in your schedule and in your emotional bandwidth. When you're running from meeting demeaning and operating at maximum capacity, compassion is usually the first thing to go. It's not because you don't care, but because you don't have room to care to lead with compassion, you need to build some buffer time between those meetings, block time out for just building relationships. Not just doing an accomplishing task. Set boundaries. Boundaries that protect your emotional resources. And remember that efficiency isn't always effective. Sometimes the most important leadership work happens in those unscheduled conversations, the things that happen in the hallways, and as we used to say, the talking by the water cooler. Those times at lunch, unplanned moments where we connect with people and learn more about them. And then you need to balance truth and grace. Compassion doesn't mean avoiding those difficult conversations at work or lowering your standard. Sometimes the most compassionate thing you can do is address performance issues or deliver constructive feedback. But compassionate leaders, they do it differently. They speak truth from a place of care, not out of frustration. They address the issues without attacking the person, and they maintain standards while also providing the support needed to meet those standards. They focus on growth of the individual, not just the business, and not just on correcting an attitude, correcting an action, correcting a person. They want that person to grow. Jesus modeled this perfectly. He never compromised truth. He always delivered it with grace. That combination creates an environment where people can thrive, develop systems that support people. Compassion isn't just an individual quality. It can be built into your organizational systems. Look at your policy and practices. Do they recognize that people have a life outside of work? Do they provide flexibility for those unexpected challenges that are going to come up? Do they create pathways for growth and development of the individual and do they balance organizational needs with the wellbeing of their teams? When compassion is embedded in your system and becomes part of your culture, something that persists even when you are not personally present. So let's review. Colossians chapter three, verse 12 calls us to put on compassion and other virtues while we can become indifferent under pressure. God calls us to reflect his compassionate character every day. We do this by practicing active listening, creating margin, giving ourselves space, balancing truth and grace in our responses, and developing supportive systems that support compassion in the workplace. So what's your challenge? Practice active listening to understand your team's concerns. Choose one conversation each day where you just focus entirely on understanding, not on solving, not on directing. Ask questions, listen and don't interrupt. Acknowledge feelings, not just the facts. And before responding, ask yourself, what would a compassionate response look like here? The best things we can do sometimes is just pause.'cause when you lead with empathy, you don't just build stronger teams, you reflect the very heart of God. Thank you for joining today's Lead in 10. If this message helped you, share it with someone else who might be encouraged by it. And don't forget to subscribe so that you can get these weekday devotionals so until tomorrow, remember, compassion is not weakness. It's a part of wisdom.