THE PURPOSE OF STRUGGLE

The deeper I get into ministry, the deeper I feel other people's misery. There are so many hurting. So many suffering. So much pain. And not enough soothing. Where are the concerned Christians whose lives should be hospitals for the hurting? Where are the avenues of hope for the broken? When I look around, why do I see so much striving, self-diagnosing? So much energy and resources used in the wrong direction.

There is a way that seems right, but its end is the way of destruction. That’s a proverb, but that was my road! I know what it feels like to cause pain and then have to manage that pain personally. Yet I don’t want anyone to know what it feels like to cause pain that cannot be managed, because it is not your pain. Meaning, you only caused it! And there is nothing you can do to pause it. I'm talking about the decisions we make that cause other people to have pain and you can't change the effect because you're the cause.

I am the way I am because I know the deep tears from the destructive way of past years. So this writing is for the believer--excuse me for caring--but I challenge you to check your bearing. I never thought it would be possible to feel someone else’s hurt, but that’s because my heart was never torn. It was only hard.  Want to know how a hard heart gets soft? It shatters after falling into your toes from the unexpected becoming the very reason you are now introspected. Tragedy. Affliction. Adversity.

Yet God trusts us with trouble to show those around us that He is the only triumph in the trouble. He recycles what we fumbled. He re-works for good what we made oh so bad. I know the comfort of God, but only by the discomfort of going away from God. This is the paradox of heavenly care. This is the care that I care to share.

You see, compassion for other people's pain never caused anyone to stumble. So open up your eyes and begin to see the purpose of struggle. To become capable comforters.

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