On my good days, it’s easy to think about other peoples’ needs. When life is “coming up roses” for me, I want to be kind and considerate to others. I figure, God has been so good to me perhaps I’ll just spread a little of that love to others. However, I do have those dark days, when life is challenging, disappointing, and painful. In those moments I tend to get way too caught up in my own issues, my own quest for relief; I become self-absorbed. When I’m having those self-absorbed, feel bad for Lenny days, it’s too easy for me to stop caring about the needs of others around me. So what if “what’s her name” can’t pay her bills, my life is falling apart. I have enough problems of my own to worry about anyone else.
Jesus, thankfully, does not stop caring for others despite what’s going on in his own life. While he is hanging up on the cross, brutally nailed there for crimes he did not commit, he considers what life will be like for his widowed mother once he is gone from this world. So, with his last few breaths Jesus devises a plan to make sure his mother will be well cared for by John the Apostle in verses 25-27. Here is Jesus with blood gashing out from multiple places in his body and all he could think about was the financial and emotional strain on Mary once he is dead. Jesus is amazing!
I am challenged today to care for the needs of others, even when I feel as if my own needs or wants are not met. Even when the chips are down for me, I want to be used by God to turn the chips up for others in need. It seems to me that one of the marks of Christian maturity is consistently caring for and helping others even and especially when you are dealing with your own unmet needs and disappointments.
4 comments:
Thanks for the challenge. You are right in saying it is hard to care for others when a person has their own struggles going on. But, sometimes the most compassionate care for someone else comes from being able to feel their pain because of the pain we are going through.
So true, Erica. While I do believe that I can help people even if I have never experienced their pain, I can empathize more when I have been in their shoes.
I think about what it says in Hebrews about Jesus. "Because Jesus suffered, he is able to help those who suffer." We have a God who is able to relate to human suffering in an extremely empathetic way because he himself severely suffered. Wow!
Greetings to all in that mighty name of "Jesus":
Each Christian of whom know him in the power of His resurrection...or, maybe I should say...those who are well acquainted with the fact, that He truly did come back from the dead...also appeared to his disciples.
Thomas was invited by Jesus to feel the nail prints within His hands. So, those who also have been convinced by only having His spirit to convince them, having never had the opportunity to feel the nail prints in his hands, as did Thomas: Jesus said blessed are those who have seen and then believed, but greater are the blessings that rest upon those who have never seen, but still believe.
I am a full time writer and an ordained minister. I have written three books so far. My first book: Reviving the dead church, by reminiscing the day of Pentecost. The second one is: Beyond the Golden Sunset and by the Crystal Sea. My third book: Off to visit the Prophet Elijah, on this one, the contract to publish has been completed and soon the book will be published.
Warm regards
William Dunigan
www.eloquentbooks.com/BeyondTheGoldenSunsetAndByTheCrystalSea.html -
1 Peter talks about the benefits of suffering and points out that one of those benefits is that we are able to help others who suffer. I always hated that point because my first choice would be to eliminate suffering completely. But it does seem to be a necessary part of life. Some days I do well at being philosophical about that subject; other days I don't do so well. I have learned though that I must feel my own pain, discomfort, struggles, in order to understand and care for others who struggle. In so doing it has made me more compassionate than I would be if I had not. Pain is pain no matter what container it comes in and it is a common denominator in life. To know my pain is to give me understanding to others.
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