Algebraic Compassion

"comfort with the comfort we ourselves receive"

2 Corinthians 1:4

I studied 1 and 2 Corinthians a few years ago, and this was a verse that really stuck out to me.  Together with verse 3, it tells us that God is "the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in trouble, with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."  The key to this verse is that God comforts us, and then we are expected to turn around and comfort others, the way we were comforted.

Going through a trial or affliction teaches us.  And one of the things we learn is how best to help someone else going through that same thing.  Ten years ago, on the day we moved out of our old house, the Apple of my Eye had to work.  We had family and some friends helping us, but it was definitely a day that needed to be covered in prayer.  I had a meeting I had to go to first thing that morning, before picking up the rental truck, and my friends prayed for me before I left.  I'll never forget how touched I was by those prayers, because there were things prayed for, that I would never have thought to pray about.   But there were many women there who had been through it, so they knew the details.  And yes, it was a comfort to me, and yes, the day went unbelievably smoothly.

And we all know the frustration of loving someone who's struggling in some way, and you just can't even imagine it.  We can feel helpless in how to encourage them or what to do for them.  But a struggle you've walked through?  You know just what to do, just what to say, just what to pray.

I thought of this verse today.  The trial my loved one was going through?  ~ Algebra.  It was my Awesome Girl, and the subject was giving her trouble today.  She called me to come help her, and I sat down next to her at the table.  I worked a problem through for her, and then she started to do one on her own.  But I realized that if she got stuck on a step, I wouldn't very easily be able to help her, unless I knew every step of that problem.  So I had to work the problem through, too.  Then we could compare steps, and if she had one wrong, we'd be able to tell immediately.  It was my job to get her through her struggle, and the only way for me to do it, was to walk through it with her.

What a gift to us, that Jesus walked the earth.  He experienced temptation; He felt pain; He knew loss, abandonment and betrayal.  His understanding enables Him to comfort us in our troubles, and then pass that comfort and understanding to others ~ in pain, in loss, or in algebra.

~ "Love one another,

as I have loved you" ~

John 13:34