詹姆士·沃倫（James Warren）的工作並不是製作長凳。但某一天在丹佛市，他注意到一位女士坐在地上等公車，他覺得這樣實在有失尊嚴。於是，這位28歲的人力顧問開始利用廢棄木材製作長凳，並放置在公車站，而且很快就被人使用。當他知道全市9,000個公車站很多都沒有候車座椅，他就作更多長凳，並且刻上兩個英文字（Be Kind），意思是善待他人。沃倫說：「我只是盡力讓人們的生活變得更好一點。」

這種行動也可被描述為憐憫。正如耶穌所展現的那樣，憐憫是一種發自內心的強烈感受，能激發我們採取行動來滿足他人的需要。當一群有急切需要的人來尋求耶穌時，祂「就憐憫他們，因為他們如同羊沒有牧人一般」（馬可福音6章34節）。馬太福音14章記載，耶穌將心中的憐憫化為行動，醫治眾人的疾病（14節）。

在歌羅西書3章，保羅呼籲眾信徒應心存憐憫（12節）。這對我們有什麼好處呢？正如沃倫所說：「這使我感到滿足，好像輪胎充飽氣一般。」

我們的周遭有很多人需要幫助，上帝會讓我們看到這些需求。這些需要能激發我們將憐憫付諸行動，而當我們向人展現基督的愛時，這樣的行動也會使他人得到鼓勵。

Building benches isn’t James Warren’s job. He started building them, however, when he noticed a woman in Denver sitting in the dirt while waiting for a bus. That’s “undignified,” Warren worried. So, the twenty-eight-year-old workforce consultant found some scrap wood, built a bench, and placed it at the bus stop. It quickly got used. Realizing many of the nine thousand bus stops in his city lacked seating, he made another bench, then several more, inscribing “Be Kind” on each one. His goal? “To make people’s lives just a little bit better, in any way I can,” Warren said.

Compassion is another way of describing such action. As practiced by Jesus, compassion is a feeling so strong that it leads us to take action to meet another’s need. When crowds of desperate people pursued Jesus, “he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). He turned that compassion into action by healing their sick (Matthew 14:14).

We too should “clothe [ourselves] with compassion,” Paul urged (Colossians 3:12). The benefits? As Warren says, “It fills me up. It’s air in my tires.”

All around us are needs, and God will bring them to our attention. Those needs can motivate us to put our compassion into action, and those actions will encourage others as we show them the love of Christ.