A close look at the words suffering and comfort will provide you with a rainbow of enlightenment. Suffering, Biblically, is a first step in the direction of comfort. God's passion is that we forge strength through the valleys of life, personal strength that becomes encouragement to others. Ever had someone tell you "it's gonna be okay" without the slightest idea of the pain you were experiencing. Their input into your life may have been well-intended sympathy, but it proved to be well short of the empathy you needed. The path you journey is a God-given one, designed to build you and pour useful empathy into you that will prove useful to others; you'll gain this needful empathy as you keep moving through the valleys of life to its mountaintops. Later, you'll look down toward the verdant valleys you traversed before coming through your troubles; it's then you need to help some soul who needs the God-infused empathy you now live to give. You've been there, worn the t-shirt, you can now truly comfort them with the comfort you've known for enduring suffering. Suffering is the only sure route into pure, unbridled comfort. It high time we embrace our pain as others' gain, as our pain helps us better understand and better others. Here's a catchy story of our need to endure, seeing Christ the invisible One by faith from Tim Elsmore.
I remember hearing a story about a frog who was hopping along a road when he fell into a large hole. He tried and tried to hop out, but was unable. As his friends came by, the frog beckoned them to go get help. Each of them ran for help, but upon their return they saw the frog hopping along the road again. He was obviously free from the confinement of the hole. When they reminded him that he couldn’t get out, he said: “Oh, you are right. I couldn’t get out. But then I heard a huge truck approaching and I realized…I had to.” Here’s to your best gifts emerging as you face that huge truck coming at you.
I remember hearing a story about a frog who was hopping along a road when he fell into a large hole. He tried and tried to hop out, but was unable. As his friends came by, the frog beckoned them to go get help. Each of them ran for help, but upon their return they saw the frog hopping along the road again. He was obviously free from the confinement of the hole. When they reminded him that he couldn’t get out, he said: “Oh, you are right. I couldn’t get out. But then I heard a huge truck approaching and I realized…I had to.” Here’s to your best gifts emerging as you face that huge truck coming at you.
