Sharing Comfort
After the disaster happened I was alone and isolated. For someone who is driven to accomplish things, that time alone was torture.
I was too tired to eat. I was lonely and afraid.
Suffering often feels very lonely.
We may not have anyone to comfort us.
We may feel that no one understands what our suffering is like.
In one sense, our experience of suffering is unique, and no other person can possibly know exactly how we feel. In another sense, suffering is something we all have in common. When we experience God’s comforting presence in our suffering, we can share that comfort with others in their pain and isolation.
The apostle Paul experienced great suffering during his life and ministry—so much that he says he even despaired of life! Yet when he writes about those troubles, he describes them like a gift he can share with others.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
2 Corinthians 1:3–7
We may consider times of suffering and loss as wasted or pointless, but from God’s perspective those times give us an unparalleled opportunity to share in the suffering of others.
What comfort have you received from God?
How can you share that comfort with others?