Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27
Monday night and all day yesterday I had a problem with a
tooth bothering me. It hurt like
crazy! Such a small portion of the body;
yet when that tooth started hurting my entire body seemed to hurt. I imagine as you read this, you can think of
your own experiences with this as well; a stubbed toe, a broken bone and the
list could go on. As I was thinking on
this, I was reminded that, as believers, we are also part of the body of
Christ. It made me wonder how we respond
when a fellow Christian is hurting. Do we ignore them; criticize them; minimize
their pain? Or do we instead help them; pray for them; ease their burden. In short, do we love them and treat them with
the care that we would treat our own body?
The fact is that one part of the body cannot hurt without the whole body
hurting. I talked to my Daughter in
Georgia last week, and she had a rough day.
Let me tell you, I hurt as though it were me having the rough day. I would have done anything to make her hurt
go away. That is how we should respond
to others in the body of Christ when they hurt.
It should hurt us so much to see them hurt that we would want to help
make their pain and hurt better. Here
are some things we can do:
- Ask God to make you specifically aware of when people are hurting.
- Remember that all us have hurts and struggles (it’s part of the world in which we live).
- Be honest when others ask how things are going?
- Look for others that are going or have gone through the same things you are
I’m sure this is not exhaustive; the point is that there are
things we can do when others hurt. We just
need to be available and decide we are going to do something to help.
