Greetings:
I never want my daily writings to be
a chore or simply a job that I am expected to do.
This is much more. It is a personal
joy as I seek God’s guidance through prayer on what he wants me to share each
morning.
I am so thankful that he prompts me
and inspires me on what to write about.
Today, it’s a tough, but honest
subject.
Suffering is a reality of life no
matter how rich we think we are.
Only heaven is free of suffering.
In the meantime, we will suffer,
loved ones will suffer, friends will hurt, and those in our community of
influence will experience pain, some more severely than others.
There will be times when it will be our turn
to be comforted, and there will be times when it will be our role to do the
comforting. Those who have experienced comfort know how valuable a ministry this
is. Those who have not experienced it in their time of need know how badly it
is needed. The ability to appropriately and genuinely comfort is a powerful
ministry.
Today, I remember a friend Donna
Kluesner, who just passed early this morning. She was a pillar of our county’s
artisan community. She worked tirelessly to help acquire and restore the old
library in Linton and turned it into a beautiful art gallery - Carnegie Arts
Center - that has been enjoyed by many. I was fortunate enough to have a photo
exhibit there a couple of years ago with my daughter and Donna was so encouraging
to us.
She has battled a variety of
ailments for a number of years and suffered.
I don’t know why good Christian people
have to suffer so much pain in a world that is full of other people who despise
and don’t follow God. That is something only God can answer.
God has shown me about the
importance of being a comfort to others, a beacon of hope in a dark world.
The best comforters are those who
genuinely care and are able to express their care. It is not necessarily
comforting when someone tells us in our time of need, “Well, things could
always be worse. After all, there’s got to be somebody who has it worse off
than you.”
Maybe there is, and maybe there is
not. Suffering is often very unique to the person. It brings little to no
comfort at all to know that things could be worse when things are as utterly
bad as they are.
Christ provides the ultimate example
of what it means to comfort.
Psalm 23:4 says, “Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
The key phrase is that Jesus is with
us. He is not absent in our suffering. He is alongside of us.
It is good enough just to know that God loves
us and cares for us? It is sufficient to know that God is in complete control
even when we hurt? It is enough to know that we have God?
Following Christ’s example is the
best way to bring others comfort. We need leave no doubt that we support them,
that we feel for them, that we care for them and that we won’t abandon them in
their time of need.
The state of being comforted is a
state of knowing that someone is there to watch over us and take care of us out
of real and genuine love for us.
Where is the person who sympathizes?
Where is the person who will try to
understand and listen?
Where is the person who will offer a
shoulder to cry on?
Where is the person who weeps with
those who weep?
Psalm 69:20 says, “Reproach has
broken my heart and I am so sick and I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
and for comforters, but I found none.”
King David was alone and he didn't
recognize his comfort was already there.
God is a God of comfort. It is time
that we learn to be effective ministers of God’s comfort to a hurting world
that believes there is no comfort, only pain.
Be blessed.
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