Feeling Someone’s Pain
1 Corinthians 12:26-27 If one part of the body suffers, then all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part is honoured, then all the other parts share its honour. All of you together are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of that body.
Pain is a fact of life. Sadly though, there are too many churches these days, that seem to have lost the will to comfort those who are hurting.
Let me ask you this question today: what makes a community? What is it that sets a genuine community apart, from a bunch of people who just hang out together? I’ve thought about that a lot and I don’t have all the answers yet.
But there is one thing that I look for when I’m looking for a church that’s a genuine faith community. It’s this: when someone’s hurting, that there are other people who are hurting with that person, other people feeling that person’s pain.
I remember the first church I ever went to. I was in great pain at the time. That’s why I’d showed up. One day, something happened that caused me to weep. And the Pastor, Phil, he sat with me in the empty church, on the hard, wooden pew, and wept with me.
In a world where we brush past one another on our way to where we’re going, in a world where we walk over the top of one another, that one thing really stood out for me. It’s something I’ll never forget.
1 Corinthians 12:26-27 If one part of the body suffers, then all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part is honoured, then all the other parts share its honour. All of you together are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of that body.
In your church, in your faith community, whatever that looks like, when someone else is hurting, how do people respond? How do you respond?
If one part of the body suffers, then all the other parts suffer with it.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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