I just finished watching a movie called "Human Trafficking." If you're interested in this issue you have got to see this movie. The first time I watched it I was angry when it was over; angry at our sick world full of people who sell others into a hellish existence, people who take kids from their parents and don't care if they live or die.

But this time when I watched it, I was surprised to find I wasn't as angry. I started to wonder if I was getting calloused, like a doctor who's cracking jokes over someone who just died. Maybe a certain degree of callousness is okay. If a docs life fell apart every time someone died, he wouldn't be able to function as a doctor.

I remember someone telling me this story of Mother Teresa. Once there was a lady who wanted to help Mother Teresa so she dropped by one of her centers. Mother Teresa asked her why she wanted to work there. The lady replied, "Because my heart just breaks every time I imagine the pain of these people." Mother Teresa replied. "The sick and poor don't need your broken heart or your imagination. They need your action."

Or something like that. I may have gotten the specifics wrong, but the general message is the same. Sometimes, maybe we get too caught up in our sympathy. It seems to me that Mother Teresa didn't walk around sympathizing constantly with the people she helped. If she did she wouldn't have been able to function in her line of work.

I think instead of sympathy, Mother Teresa had compassion; a compassion that produced a sharp-as-nails drive to do anything to help the suffering. And that meant being tough at times. It meant looking at the world honestly and observing its dirt. It meant not closing her eyes to uncomfortable truths. But it also meant knowing when to look in someone's eyes and tell them they were unique and special, when to neglect pressing needs and sit holding someone's hand.

Compassion demands that balance.

Compassion has a calloused side but only because it is an action. I can sympathize with a sick person all I want, but I'm not having compassion on them until I do something about it. And I can't do something unless I'm willing to tough it up and deal with some of the crap the world has to offer.