How can you encourage and bring comfort to those around you who are struggling? Offer your presence and be there for them! Find more practical ways to encourage at joniradio.org.
When you hurt, do you have someone you can count on for comfort?
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and you would be shocked at how many people – Christians, even – do not have someone they can lean on when they’re going through tough times because we live such isolated lives, and so many relationships seem to only skate on the surface of people’s needs. At our ministry, we hear from many listeners who, once they experience a debilitating injury, well, after a while, their friends just don’t come around. They realize they don’t share much in common with someone whose disability has altered things. It especially happens to parents who have a child with a disabling condition. Their family life is just so different from that of others – they feel like they do not fit anymore among their friends. And isolation sets in when they’re no longer able to participate in social circles. Even a church. And, oh, that breaks my heart. I know one special-needs dad who lost all his guy-friends after his two little boys were diagnosed with autism.
Oh, where are the people who will go deeper with that dad, right? Who will make the sacrifice to reach out, get involved in, listen to, and just be with that young father? It’s a fallen and broken world, and one of the most profoundly significant blessings that you and I can render to people like I’ve described is to simply be there, be with them. It is an age-old need. I mean, consider this: way back in the days of Jeremiah the prophet, three times in the first chapter of Lamentations, Jeremiah laments that there was “none” to bring comfort. That’s his sorrow, his lament. Three times. There was no one to bring comfort, he says. So, you can see, for a long, long time people have been walking wide circles around others who feel isolated for any number of different reasons. And I think this is why, when Paul opens 2 Corinthians, he mentions the comfort of God and the comfort we can bring. He mentions it no fewer than nine times in the first seven verses. Just like in Lamentations, the idea of comfort means “coming alongside,” being there, helping someone in time of need. Yes, God wants to give his consolation, but he’s looking for people to apply that love to those who hurt. And your physical presence with people who are socially isolated, cut off from others because of disability – it could be the elderly in your apartment building; mothers of special-needs kids in your cul-de-sac; it could be a fishing or a golfing buddy who can’t get free on Saturdays anymore because of disability in the family – oh, please, we can do better than the scene described in Lamentations where there was “no one to comfort.” I mean, come on, nowadays… really? No one? Will you find a way to “be there” for these people? Honestly, your presence is the greatest gift you can offer.
And, look, if you need ideas, we have scores of them at Joni and Friends. We can offer guidance, training, help, resources. Even assisting your church in putting together a group of volunteers to come alongside dads like that father of those two little boys with autism. So, connect with us at Joniradio.org. And while you’re there, ask for my pamphlet “No Longer Alone.” Right off the bat, you’ll have handy a list of ways that you can provide practical comfort. It’s a good resource, given that it is national mental health awareness month. So, ask for my booklet “No Longer Alone;” it’s all there for you, free, at Joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends