The weight of suffering all around me often times consumes me. I can feel the weight of the world on my shoulders and my goodness it is heavy. All around me and in own life cancer, dying, sickness, physical, emotional and mental deaths take their toll. I feel it all and some days I feel crushed by it. I look at our own life right now and often wonder where God is and when he will send our rescue. I do not question God’s character, in his love he has continued to bring peace to our hearts, he has killed his cows to provide for us physically and when I chose to stay close to him there is still light in my soul. I do however wrestle with his methods of allowing his beloveds to feel such tragic awfulness here on earth. I often cry out with tears streaming down my face, where are you? His answer, yes he does answer, I often have to sit still long enough to hear him, but he does answer.
In light of our pain and the pain going on all around me, I have been thinking of scripture and the lives God used to tell us amazing, life giving, hopeful answers to persevere in a fallen world. I have a habit of paying attention to how people go about successfully accomplishing their lives. The same is true as I read the bible, I ask myself, how did Christ through them (because I know we in and of ourselves are not capable to do anything on our own, even if we think we are) dealt with their circumstances and situations. The story of the “good” Samaritan popped into my mind, which I know when something pops into my mind, I need to pay attention. The Holy Spirit is trying to bring wisdom and guidance to my life.
I began to think about how I was presented and then interpreted the parable of the good samaritan. Then I thought, but none of us are “good”. He was a man with fallen flesh as much as any other human. He was a human who chose to look outside of his comfort zone, image and trusted the Lord with his resources. We do not know where the samaritan was going, where he had come from or other details about him, scripture only says he was going on a journey. He may have been on his way to meet an important business partner, his wife or his kids he had not seen for weeks. He may have been down on his luck and God moved in his heart to help him look outside of his sorry state to attend to the needs of another.
I use to think how in the world could a Priest and a Levite not stop to show compassion, what were they thinking? If I stop and think about the times when I am in pain, stressed out and busy I tend to look only at myself. If I am in overdrive mode there are times I want to hide from the world even though I am in plane sight. I start to worry about my blemishes, I listen to the shame and guilt Satan hands me and I believe them. Then at the same time I think about the times I have unfairly judged another or thought about my own comforts above another. How could they walk by someone bleeding and in need. The question I find myself asking is what caused the different reactions?
We are all fallen and in need of God’s mercy, grace and forgiveness. We are all in need to let Jesus heal us and let the Holy Spirit guide us. Whether we are literally lying on the road in pain or walking around with physical and emotional wounds no one but us can see, God cares.