How to be “good news” to suffering people

This is a post in a series titled “30 days for dad.”

You can’t change the fact that losing someone you love, or dealing with a really bad situation that can’t be flipped around, just really really really sucks. So don’t try to come with a tool box to “fix it.” We live in a broken world marred by sin, a world of pain. What you can do, in the midst of pain, is be comforted.

The best balm to a hurting person is someone who enters into the brokenness with them, and brings hope. It feels awkward to have your heart spilling out everywhere around someone who has it all together. I’m not saying you should become an emotional basket-case in general, but I’m saying sometimes, in moments, you do need to become an emotional basket-case and “go there.”

This is one of the reasons I love Jesus, the Man of Sorrows. It is one of the most comforting things to me, knowing that he very likely lost his earthly dad (Joseph isn’t mentioned in the account after Jesus is 12), and definitely lost his eternal Father for an infinite moment. He understands my pain. And, he brings with him the hope of Himself and the Resurrection, the renewal of all things and the ending of pain. I don’t just want to say, “F my life.” I want to hear that my F’d up life can be redeemed.

Here is a comment I made on the last post I shared from 2003. I made it 5 years later, a day before I turned 23. I think it is insight into how you can help the hurting.

1 Comments:

Anonymous said…

I wish I could have talked to you as I am now. If I was arrogant and impatient, you would have heard nothing from my mouth and become more hardened and proud. If I loved you and spoke tenderly to you, I think you would still want to fight. But if you saw the tears in my eyes from knowing the pain, I think you would listen to what I said.

It has taken me four or five years to learn that God as the gift of Himself, saving me from my wage of death and Hell, is far greater than any earthly treasure or possession I have ever had or will have, including dad and my future family, Lord willing. Yes, it makes the small sufferings and losses I have had pale in comparison to who I have gained, and the hope of what will one day fully be realized: beholding God face to face.

It hurts. I know. Thanks for teaching me pain, and letting me come to You for comfort. Now I can touch the hurting and bring them the same comfort. Truly You are so wise. Thank you for all the scars.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

-Stephen Sakanashi, five years later

5:53 PM, February 20, 2009