Matthew 9:34-38: in context

As Jesus goes through the towns and villages, teaching, preaching the good news, and healing, he looks at the crowds and is moved with compassion, for they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And out of that compassion he speaks to his disciples: the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

What moves Jesus here is compassion, and it is worth noticing how he sees the crowds. Where others might have seen a nuisance, a mass of needy people, or nothing at all, Jesus saw them as harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, and his heart went out to them. He saw their lostness, their exhaustion, their lack of anyone to guide and care for them, and he was moved. This is how Jesus regards people, with compassion for their real condition; and it is worth asking whether we see the people around us with anything of his eyes, or with indifference, irritation, or blindness to their need. To grow in Christ is in part to grow in his compassion, to begin to see the harassed and helpless around us as he saw them, and to be moved. And notice what his compassion led him to say: the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. He saw the crowds not only as needy sheep but as a harvest, ready to be gathered, waiting for workers. The need was great, the opportunity vast, and the workers too few. And his first counsel is not to strategize or to strive, but to pray: pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Before the sending comes the praying; the harvest belongs to God, and the workers must be asked of him. There is both a way of seeing and a first action here for us. The way of seeing is compassion, looking at people as Jesus did, harassed and helpless, and being moved rather than indifferent. And the first action is prayer, asking the Lord of the harvest for laborers, for a harvest that is his and workers who must be sent by him. And often, those who begin to pray for laborers find themselves becoming the answer to their own prayer, sent out into the harvest their compassion has learned to see.

Do I see the people around me with Jesus' compassion, as harassed and helpless sheep without a shepherd, or with indifference and irritation, and do I take his first counsel, praying the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers, ready that I myself might become part of the answer to that prayer?