IDENTIFYING WITH OUR SUFFERING

Christ's sufferings allow us to realize something amazing: that God suffers with us.

When we feel like we've been humiliated in the presence of those around us, Christ has "already been there, done that."

When we feel like all our friends have fled, and we wonder whom we can trust, Christ has "already been there, done that."

When we experience great physical pain in our lives, and wonder when it will mercifully end, Christ has "already been there, done that."

And if we or someone we know, for some unthinkable reason, experiences an untimely, or unexpected death, Christ has "already been there, done that."

In short, there is no human suffering -- self inflicted, world inflicted, caused by blind luck or fate -- that Christ cannot understand and identify with. That is why we can say, with the famous Psalm-writer, "Even if I walk though the valley of the shadow of death, You are with me..."

In precisely those worst times of life, God is with us. God understands us. God is not just some out-of-touch purveyor of psycho-babble, challenging us to "be positive." God realizes that some days it's hard to find anything positive. And that's OK. And part of why it's OK is that God will be there in our sufferings, anytime we stop to notice.

-- Copyright Eric Folkerth 2001. All Rights Reserved. (Used with Permission)


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