Sharing Comfort

Once I started running a fever, I had to self-quarantine for 14 long days.

For someone who is driven to accomplish things, that time alone
was torture.

I was too tired to eat. I was lonely and afraid
that I might get worse. It turns out I didn’t have
COVID-19, but now that I’ve recovered, I feel
like my whole time in quarantine was pointless.
All that suffering and worry for nothing!

Suffering often feels very lonely.

We may not have anyone to comfort us.

We may feel that no one understands what our suffering is like.

In one sense, our experience of suffering is unique,
and no other person can possibly know exactly how
we feel. In another sense, suffering is something
we all have in common. When we experience God’s
comforting presence in our suffering, we can share
that comfort with others in their pain and isolation.

The apostle Paul experienced great suffering during
his life and ministry—so much that he says he even
despaired of life! Yet when he writes about those
troubles, he describes them like a gift he can share
with others.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the
God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our
troubles, so that we can comfort those in any
trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive
from God. For just as we share abundantly in
the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort
abounds through Christ. If we are distressed,
it is for your comfort and salvation; if we
are comforted, it is for your comfort, which
produces in you patient endurance of the
same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for
you is firm, because we know that just as you
share in our sufferings, so also you share in our
comfort.
2 Corinthians 1:3–7

We may consider times of suffering and loss as wasted 
 or pointless, but from God’s perspective those times 
 give us an unparalleled opportunity to share in the 
 suffering of others.

What comfort have you received 
 from God? 

How can you share that comfort 
 with others?