By Kristen Entwistle

One Sunday, we were looking in Sunday School at a passage in 2 Corinthians.  

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

2 Corinthians 1:3-11

The way that we talked about this passage that Sunday centered around God delivering us from situations that were uncomfortable so that we would be comfortable and able to comfort others, that God makes everything turn out “good”, comfortable, and perfect.  I’d like to challenge that premise.

Let me throw a scenario out there to you.  A friend has been recently diagnosed with cancer.  What do you think is going to comfort him or her more?  A) A friend who has never had medical problems of any sort telling them that God will heal them because He has promised to comfort us so that we can comfort others.  B) A friend who has a child with cancer who says that everything happens for a reason and we just have to trust that God knows what He’s doing.  C) A friend who has cancer, undergoing treatment, who says that God has promised to comfort us in everything; that doesn’t mean he’s going to take away the cancer and heal you, but that He will hold you up through all of it, such that someday, you’ll look back and see why.

I’ll let you decide who you’d rather hear from, but I’m going to throw my two cents in there.  I’d rather hear option C.  It’s real.  It’s honest.  And it’s comforting to know that someone else is going through this too.  I don’t think that the comfort Paul is talking about here equals complete healing (emotionally, physically, or otherwise).  Yes, I believe that God can heal every affliction, soften every heart, and cure every cancer.  But He doesn’t.  Because sometimes the comfort that others need, comes from a life just as broken, just as frayed at the edges, and hurting in the same way that they are.  I don’t think Paul is saying that everything is going to turn out good and that we will have to be physically or emotionally comfortable in order to be able to comfort others (pretty sure that thorn in his side prevented that for him).  I think the most helpful comfort comes from sincerity, love, and mutual brokenness.  You don’t have to have cancer to comfort someone with cancer.  But you do have to be human.  You have to be willing to listen and feel and love and help in any way you can.  That’s comforting.

And here’s the other thing that’s definitely true in my life:  God uses ALL things for His glory.  Not just the good things.  He uses the broken, the hurting, the sinning, the sick, the less fortunate – all for HIS glory.  He’s used my sickness in more ways that I can count, and in more magnitude than I ever could have imagined.  And my testimony would not be the same if He had chosen to heal me.  It would still be a testimony to His glory, but I think that the comfort I have received from Christ and His instruments here on earth have enabled me to be able to comfort others in many more situations and places than otherwise.