I'm coming off a long hiatus here, but I finally feel I've got something to share, however brief it may be.
As a child I really feel I was sheltered, or maybe just unaware, of the problems people were facing. Now at almost 30 years old I'm faced with them everyday. I'm faced with my own issues, and I'm made very aware of the falleness of the world around me as I take phone calls and listen to people and where they're at. I could say that 'it's ministry', but I think I'd rather say 'it's everywhere.' You can't escape the fallen nature of the world...the hurts, the evils, all of it. But there's got to be a better way, doesn't there?
Enter a brief hymn of Paul in the beginning of 2 Corinthians that brought much encouragement to me this morning. Here it is:
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 have received from the
God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through
Christ our comfort overflows. 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.
Ever realize how life seems to have those two poles: suffering and comfort? The tension of joy and sorrow? The tension where everything is held together and everything is falling apart? The beauty of Paul's words is that we are held together in Christ...pulled toward suffering and despair by the events of everyday life, but yet pulled toward hope by the salvation of Jesus Christ.
So many times I just want to give in. It's so easy to give in and just go down the spiral of suffering into disillusionment and despair. However, in my experience thus far, God is here to strengthen us and give us hope in what seems like hopeless situations. This is the promise of God in this present life, is it not? That somehow though we'll have trouble in this world we've overcome it through Christ. It has not overcome us.
