For the past several days our family has been dealing with a dire circumstance. I will not share the details here, suffice it to say that it is a continuing life and death matter that impacts members of our family. The situation has resulted in some travel, much prayer, and many tears. It is one of the reasons I have been absent from the blog in the past week or so.
One of the family members who this most deeply impacts came to our house a week or so ago. They had a question. Their pastor was working through the Gospel of John in his messages. The family member wanted to study the gospel as the pastor spoke on each passage. There was a question of how to find cross references to some of the issues that were presented in the text.
We were in the kitchen when the question came up, my office is next to the kitchen (close to the source of coffee). I grabbed some tools out of my office and we stood around the island talking through what they wanted to do. We spent some time working through this together and then I gave them my Strong’s concordance and one of my Bibles that had center column references.
I share this because this individual was in a place where many would be practically incapacitated. When I share what is going on in their family, the universal response is stunned silence. Even their pastor confessed he had no words to share. This is a hard, hard reality they are facing.
Which makes the conversation in the kitchen remarkable.
There was a question related to the issue just before they left, but the majority of our conversation was on how to more effectively study the Word.
This individual is handling this situation better than the vast majority of people would. Why? It is that they are continually in the Word of God. Look at Psalm 119:50, 52. Note that “comfort” is associated with God’s Word in both of those passages.
Life is hard. We will, as believers, face suffering and disease as will the rest of the residents of this planet. However, we are also promised suffering, which Jesus promises and both Paul and Peter reiterate. To handle those realities, while it is important to be in community that will support one in those times; if one does not have a strong foundation in the Word of God, if it is not a priority in their life, if the study and application of the Book is not a way of life for them, the comfort will be shallow and fleeting.
