Trials
2 Corinthians 1:3-5, ESV
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts
us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in
any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For
as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share
abundantly in comfort too”
.
In the spring of 2003 our family
experienced tragedy. Even then we
knew the Lord would not allow His children to experience such pain without purpose. To us, we were being commissioned to
minister in ways we could not have done in the past. This proved true that November when I was asked (because the
scheduled speaker did not show) to speak at a men's breakfast at the
Evangelical Free Church of Hershey, PA.
Due to the spontaneity, I candidly spoke about the lessons my wife and I
were learning. After breakfast a
man came up to me in tears. That
week his family had experienced the same tragedy. The night before, unable to sleep, he went online to find
direction, and learned about that men's breakfast. He did not attend that church, and had never gone to that
breakfast before. It was clear to
all involved that the Lord had placed us there to comfort others with the comfort with which we ourselves were comforted
by God.
When Psalm 23 teaches us that the good
shepherd provides comfort through the valley of the shadow of death, we must
understand that He primarily provides comfort through His people. The singing group Casting Crowns
addresses this in a song, where they sing, "If we are the body, why aren't
His arms reaching? Why aren't his
hands healing? Why aren't His
words teaching ... Why is His love not showing them there is a way?"
The Lord does not delight in pain; but,
He does delight in comfort, and drawing people to a relationship with Him. Could it be that, for every lost person
who suffers in this world, God commissions one of His children to experience similar
temporal pain to show them the way to Him?
David Rucquoi, Darien, 20 years at Hope, serving as an Elder.
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