Shared Sufferings Lead to Shared Comfort
I guess I would like to begin by welcoming everyone to my blog! Whether you are checking in for my mission or simply hoping to read my jumbled thoughts, I hope that you find the Lord here.
This is my first post ever so I wanted to explain my url "shared comfort." When I finally got myself to sit down and create this blog for my mission (that I leave for in three days by the way) I was trying to come up with creative blog titles that would instantly notify someone that this blog was a christian blog. However, it seemed as though all of the titles I wanted were taken and, for the life of me, I couldn't come up with anything that worked. I then began to look through the verses I have bookmarked on the app on my phone and stumbled across 2 Corinthians 1:5&7 which say:
With a pit in my stomach, I typed in "shared comfort" and the grey checkmark next to the url flashed at me, telling me that the blog title could be mine. And of course the blog title that works is one that talks about suffering and comfort--two concepts that make me shift in my seat a little.
To give a little background on the passage: Paul is writing to a church in Corinth and the verses surrounding the above mentioned two talk about ministry growth in suffering: saying that the Lord comforts us in our times of affliction so that we may be able to comfort others. (If you haven't wanted to roll your eyes yet, now is the perfect time) Why can't our ministry grow without suffering? Well, it can but it makes it hardly relatable. Everyone has faced a point of suffering (some more than others) and that is what makes every ministry so unique.
I don't really like to talk about suffering (for obvious reasons) and the thought of sharing comfort through sufferings makes me feel sick to my stomach. I thought about the ministry of Jesus and how--in order to experience life as a human--he became one. His ministry was made stronger in the fact that now He has experienced what we are going through: every bit of it. He experienced the temptation and anger and lust and everything else that comes along with being human. Though He never gave into them, they were still a very real presence in His life. But through His life as a human and His unimaginable death, we can go to Him with confidence that we aren't alone in our sufferings. When I go to Him with my problems, it's almost as if I can hear Him laugh and say "well, yeah, Sydney. I know that {enter in any complaint ever} is difficult" because He has been there, faced that, and knows how to comfort us in it.
For anyone who knows me, you would know that I love people. I love fellowship. I think it is remarkable that we are apart of Christ's body and we each play a different role (1 Corinthians 12). And each person has a different story and a different suffering to add to the ministry. The Lord pieces us together like one big puzzle that is ultimately a picture of Him and suddenly we are His hands and feet with all kinds of sufferings and stories. When we work together, we are relatable and relevant and (most importantly) and direct arrow to the one who comforts us in our sufferings.
So, consider this post a boost of encouragement. Your sufferings are not in vain. The Lord is looking to comfort you in this time and with that, you can share your comfort with people who are going through the exact same thing you went through or are still going through. The sufferings you share with the people around you can easily turn into shared comfort when you look for comfort in (literally) the God of Comfort and the Prince of Peace.
This is my first post ever so I wanted to explain my url "shared comfort." When I finally got myself to sit down and create this blog for my mission (that I leave for in three days by the way) I was trying to come up with creative blog titles that would instantly notify someone that this blog was a christian blog. However, it seemed as though all of the titles I wanted were taken and, for the life of me, I couldn't come up with anything that worked. I then began to look through the verses I have bookmarked on the app on my phone and stumbled across 2 Corinthians 1:5&7 which say:
5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 7 Our hope for you in unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
With a pit in my stomach, I typed in "shared comfort" and the grey checkmark next to the url flashed at me, telling me that the blog title could be mine. And of course the blog title that works is one that talks about suffering and comfort--two concepts that make me shift in my seat a little.
To give a little background on the passage: Paul is writing to a church in Corinth and the verses surrounding the above mentioned two talk about ministry growth in suffering: saying that the Lord comforts us in our times of affliction so that we may be able to comfort others. (If you haven't wanted to roll your eyes yet, now is the perfect time) Why can't our ministry grow without suffering? Well, it can but it makes it hardly relatable. Everyone has faced a point of suffering (some more than others) and that is what makes every ministry so unique.
I don't really like to talk about suffering (for obvious reasons) and the thought of sharing comfort through sufferings makes me feel sick to my stomach. I thought about the ministry of Jesus and how--in order to experience life as a human--he became one. His ministry was made stronger in the fact that now He has experienced what we are going through: every bit of it. He experienced the temptation and anger and lust and everything else that comes along with being human. Though He never gave into them, they were still a very real presence in His life. But through His life as a human and His unimaginable death, we can go to Him with confidence that we aren't alone in our sufferings. When I go to Him with my problems, it's almost as if I can hear Him laugh and say "well, yeah, Sydney. I know that {enter in any complaint ever} is difficult" because He has been there, faced that, and knows how to comfort us in it.
For anyone who knows me, you would know that I love people. I love fellowship. I think it is remarkable that we are apart of Christ's body and we each play a different role (1 Corinthians 12). And each person has a different story and a different suffering to add to the ministry. The Lord pieces us together like one big puzzle that is ultimately a picture of Him and suddenly we are His hands and feet with all kinds of sufferings and stories. When we work together, we are relatable and relevant and (most importantly) and direct arrow to the one who comforts us in our sufferings.
So, consider this post a boost of encouragement. Your sufferings are not in vain. The Lord is looking to comfort you in this time and with that, you can share your comfort with people who are going through the exact same thing you went through or are still going through. The sufferings you share with the people around you can easily turn into shared comfort when you look for comfort in (literally) the God of Comfort and the Prince of Peace.
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