Being the Comforter

My friend Lisa had a great post on comforting the injured. I have definitely erred on the side of chasing down the wrongdoer and leaving the wounded suffering with their wounds. My nature is to give the "suck it up" answer more often than the "oh, how awful for you" answer. This seems to be a rough spot God is in the process of smoothing down for me.



Our sermon today was on Job 42. After all of Job's suffering, God restores what was taken from him. Not only that he is vindicated from the verbal beatings he suffered at the hands of his "friends." The bottom line was that God is our comfort. Even in the wreckage of our lives, sometimes suffered for no apparent reason, God is there, and He comforts us.



This all works out in my life in a couple of ways. First, I need to work harder at being a comfort to those around me. My nature is to be the judge, but I need to keep that balanced with being the advocate. I need to have more empathy for my children, my husband, my parents, and my friends. I need to be much more humble in the face of suffering. I need to stop trying to explain it, and just bear it with whoever it is that God brings to me. These things are time consuming. They keep me from getting the laundry done, and the dinner made, and all of the other things that need to happen, but they are more important. I need to keep that in the forefront of the brain, maybe I will write it on the top of my to do list.



The second way this works out, is in my thinking about suffering, and justice. I found myself thinking on a personal level, but also on a global level. I was starting to compare Job's friends with the US, and Job with Africa. We tend to tell Africa a lot of truths about their situation, but we are very short on comforting them. We are where we are by the grace of God. I don't believe that the majority of Americans believe that, but it doesn't matter. We seem to think we can point out everyone else's faults, because we currently have the most resources. We don't however spend a lot of time pondering how we can comfort those that suffer around the world. In my life that means that I need to remember those that are suffering. I need to be praying for them regularly. I need to advocate for them, whenever I can. I need to remember to write to my sponsored children, and friends that are ministering in foreign countries. They are encouraged when people in America remember them. These seem like insignificant things, but I believe in God's economy they are worth much more than I think.



Being a comforter will never make me rich in this world. It will not feed the hungry, at least not the physically hungry, but it will feed the soul. I am still reading My Own Country, by Abraham Verghese. He was talking about his role as an infectious disease specialist in the late '80s, and how his treatment options for HIV+ patients were so limited. He realized that more than anything he needed to comfort these people that were dieing, without hope of treatment, without the ability to tell their friends. He was their only comfort. He realized that choosing this speialty meant that he did not get to bill people for many of his services. I could totally relate. I often feel that way about my job. Today I can see it from a new perspective. I may not be "rich" by American standards, but I have abundant riches all around me everyday.

Perhaps my ability to comfort gives some meaning to the other person's suffering. It gives me the opportunity to be like Christ to them. Who knows when the day will come when the roles will be reversed, or maybe they never will, but God sees it all.