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Luke 10:30 (NLT)
Jesus replied with a story: ‘A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.’
As a young Christian, while my mind acknowledged bad things happen to God’s good people, I felt that I was immune to such troubles. So, when trouble did strike, childlessness and then our battle with MS, I was unprepared. It was an unwelcome intrusion into my life. Here I was faithfully following God, a faith based evangelist for goodness sake, and then this calamity. If this is how God treats his friends little wonder he had so few; and I was now seriously considering quitting.
Much like the man on the road to Jericho jumped by robbers who beat him and left him for dead. This wasn’t his anticipated outcome setting out, but he now found himself seriously wounded, stripped naked and abandoned. There was nothing he could do for himself.
My daughter was with a friend in London late one night when some men in city suits first verbally and then physically attacked them. Her friend, recovering from treatment for cancer, was beaten and my daughter put herself in harm’s way attempting to protect her. A hand reached down grasped her arm and spun her out giving her a spiral fracture. An American student then chanced upon them, called the police, organised a cab and accompanied them to hospital where he sat with them providing comfort and a witness statement to the police.
Unanticipated harm can reach into anyone of our lives and we are to express solidarity with one another. We cannot undo the immediate effects of another’s pain but can accompany them and support them as they attempt to find the way back onto the road to recovery. In Jesus’ parable the racially abused Samaritan provided such generous companionship.
The problem with my pain is that it can so easily consume me and I lose perspective on life and sight of God in the mayhem. It is often others, many times unlikely figures, who are prepared to act as my companion on that road to recovery.
QUESTION: Who has sought to accompany you from unanticipated pain on the road toward recovery? How have you responded?
PRAYER: Lord, fill me with compassion today for those who are hurting.
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