pain

I am starting to notice something not only about myself, but in others in regards to pain. Most recently i attended a funeral. A friend of ours lost his dad in an auto accident. Although my friend's relationship with his dad while on this earth was not great, the pain of losing your daddy is HUGE.

Our instinct is to do "whatever" to help take that pain away from the person traveling through it, it is like we are trying to absorb that pain into ourselves in order to relieve our friend, our buddy, our child, our spouse from hurting. But something that is interesting, when we stop to think, is: why do we pretend or deflect pain when it hits us? When we know someone is traveling through difficult circumstances, when we know that life has brought someone to their knees and their entire body screams "I'm dying" we ask "are you OK?" Really? are you OK? If that's not crazy enough the response from our hurting friend is "i'm good" or "I'm alright"......ok I'm off that craziness anyone want to join me? OK good.

God talks about pain throughout scripture, I mean heck think about Job for a minute, that man went through some pain didn't he? Yes, and I believe Paul dealt with physical and mental pain, yet look at his words in:
Romans chapter 8:23 And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

So God is continually teaching us through these moments of pain and then comfort as we travel to the other side. And before I jump off that craziness wagon completely let's take a look at the following:
2 Corinthians 1:4
He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

So now it's becoming more clear (or clearer haha), maybe just maybe we are offering comfort and not trying to wear the pain....Yea i believe that's right and kiddos that ain't crazy...that's lovin em up!

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