I have a new appreciation for Job’s friends. I know they were as mixed up as a dog’s breakfast…but they were there. They came to sit with Job and to give what support and advice they had. In fact…for them to function in a way that truly would have made them a blessing…they should have just kept their mouths shut. I think we have the same problem standing beside hospital beds and caskets. We feel like we have to say something… Rom. 12: 15 (TLB) When others are happy, be happy with them. If they are sad, share their sorrow. 16 Live in harmony with each other. Dont try to act important, but enjoy the company of ordinary people. And dont think you know it all! It’s called empathy…”feeling with…” It’s a lot easier to pass by on the other side of the road…or to pontificate on the “coulda, shoulda, woulda’s” of life. The good Samaritan didn’t heal the man who was mugged on the Jericho road…he just did what he could with what he had. I sat with my mom in the pre-dawn dark. She was moaning in some pain the doctors can’t figure out. I found myself angry…wanting her suffering to just stop. But it didn’t and I had plenty of time to figure out that what made me mad is that I couldn’t do anything better than to be there so she wouldn’t be alone. I guess it’s a man thing. You know…I want to fix it. Rubbing her back and shoulders…feeling those moans going through her…it made me feel terrible. The closer I got to her the more I felt her fear and pain. And, suddenly, there I was…among Job’s friends…feeling like I needed to say something that would wrap all her hurting up in a neat little package. We don’t know it all. We think we do…but we don’t. What suffering people need most of all is for somebody to care enough just to be there. Don’t run your mouth and ruin it. Just be there.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 14:27:22 +0000