Hurt People Love People

Difficulties and obstacles are God's challenges to faith. When hindrances confront us in the path of duty, we are to recognize them as vessels for faith to fill with the fullness and all-sufficiency of Jesus.  A.B. Simpson

I decided to take yesterday’s devotional one step further.  There are people who are hurting that lash out at others to hurt them.  When they are in pain they want others to feel that pain too.  There is another type of person who is hurting but even in the midst of their hurt, they love others. 

Have you ever met someone like that?  A person who may be suffering from a terminal disease or a loss of a family member or other tragedy, yet they still seem to give to others through all the pain.  When you meet that person, you have seen a glimpse of Jesus.  When this happens, you stand back and ask, “How can this person possibly want to do for others when they are in the midst of so much pain”? 

We all suffer trouble and tragedy in this world.  You can’t avoid it and if you have avoided it up to this point, you will eventually meet trouble face to face.  This is the reality of the world we live in.  How you handle your trouble is the important thing? 

Several years ago I attended a support group for ovarian cancer survivors.  Each time we met we were encouraged to share our story with each other.  Not long after I started attending I shared my story.  One of the ladies spoke up after I finished and turned to me and said, “How can you know what it feels like for us since your cancer is only a stage 1”? 

When she said it I was devastated. One of the other ladies in the group who had been through over a hundred rounds of chemo and was a stage 4, spoke up and said something kind to me, probably because she could see how devastated I was over what the woman said.  Up to that point, I didn’t even think about the number associated with the cancer.  I was just praising God that I was still breathing. Our group was later doing a benefit to raise awareness for ovarian cancer and I called to volunteer.  She was in charge of the volunteers.  She declined to let me volunteer although she later sent out an email requesting volunteers after she turned me down. 

I continued to attend the meetings but I never forgot those words spoken in pain from this other woman.  I did however revise my opinion of her after much prayer.  The hurt of the words eventually went away and I started praying for her instead because I finally realized it was her pain talking.  I am sad to say, she later lost her battle with the disease.   

No matter what trouble you face in life, there will be others around you who may have more or less tragic circumstances.  If we blame God or others for our tragedies we will never be able to show them a picture of Christ.  Take your hurt and turn it into love for others.  Christ suffered the worst pain any human being can suffer, but he loved the ones causing His pain so much that he asked God to forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing.    

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I praise You for the tragedies in my life.  They have made me a stronger person and have helped me to love others more for having survived them.  I don’t like pain but it has helped me to see people from Your perspective.  Loving others is a choice each of us make even when they are at their most unlovable.  Jesus, I am forever amazed that You loved us enough to go through unimaginable pain just so that we may live.  I praise You. 

Scripture: There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  Luke 23:32-34