The Comfort We Receive
What are the difficult things that you’ve walked through? Have you lost someone from a death that made grief a cruel interloper, too real and too unkind? Have you struggled with poor grades, limited opportunities and rejections from universities, causing you to be gun shy from pursuing higher education? Did you grow up in a highly dysfunctional family, maybe around family members with painful personality disorders? Have you lived with the consequences of poor financial decisions that led to bankruptcy, house foreclosure, eviction, etc.?
When I think about these questions and consider the difficulties through which I’ve walked in my life, this reflection causes me to pause. I find a hitch in my breathing, a stitch in my feelings, a sadness in my thoughts and an intense reflex to avoid these difficulties. For example, it’s challenging for me to hear about someone who has experienced a concussion because of the memories that get stirred up from my own concussion adventure.
For a quick summary, some years ago, I was snowboarding and riding too aggressively. The back of my board caught an edge on the snow. I accidentally did a backflip and landed on my head. Thankfully, I was wearing a helmet, or it’s a good possibility that I could have sustained permanent brain damage. Some people would argue that I did sustain lasting brain damage, but that’s another story for a different blog.
My recovery from this concussion was at best tedious, but mostly just flat-out torture, and the recovery lasted F-O-R-E-V-E-R. I lived in a fog for some months; my energy was non-existent, I struggled to remember almost everything, I often lost my balance and I couldn’t sustain a conversation for more than fifteen minutes. There were lots of other symptoms but suffice it to say that I wouldn’t wish a concussion on my worst enemy, except maybe Satan. That would be fine with me because I think he’s the origin of this hideous injury.
My point in bringing these bad memories to your attention is to ask you to consider what comfort you received in these very difficult and challenging experiences. What helped you to navigate the pain that you felt? What was constructive to move forward and possibly get out of the hardship? It’s really important to assess what was helpful on these occasions because there could be a tremendous value and even redemptive purpose that can come out of the pain we experienced.
Perhaps we can comfort others who might be going through a similar challenge from the comfort we received having gone through that struggle. As an example, I have a friend who helps people recover from job termination. She went through that experience, and she has outlined and published a process to help people who find themselves jobless from termination.
Consider 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “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 will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
Rather than avoiding the painful memories and struggles, perhaps we could redeem these hurts by choosing to help others who could be going through a similar hardship.