You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Don’t Waste Your Pain.” Truly awful things will happen to us at one time or another, and typically the only redeeming value lies in what we make of these experiences. As I write this, I’m heavy hearted, sick to my stomach really, over the news from Las Vegas and the horrific shooting at a country music festival. I won’t pretend to understand why these things happen or why people must endure such terrible suffering. But I do know that our pain need not be wasted.
When you survive a time of adversity, even if it seems minor compared to the hardships faced by the Las Vegas victims’ families and loved ones, God can use you to help someone else. As we read in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
To put this into practice requires “compassion,” a word that comes from the Greek word splanchna, meaning “guts.” In the Bible, splanchna is used literally to describe the inner parts of the chest cavity, such as the heart, lungs, and blood vessels, but it is also used figuratively to describe the overwhelming compassion someone feels toward another person in need. With a heart of compassion, we’re able to use our pain for something good. We can comfort others with the same comfort we’ve received. We’re all in this life together; I can’t be healed if you can’t be healed. What I’ve learned from my pain can help you through your pain. To quote author and theologian Frederick Buechner, “Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It’s the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”
Troy Burns