I ran into a friend at the gym this morning. As soon as I saw her my eyes welled up with tears. I grabbed her and hugged her as the tears made their way down my face. There were no words that could possibly be spoken in that moment. My heart broke at the grief I knew she was feeling from the loss of her teenage son less than 2 short weeks earlier. She talked and I listened, and cried. I felt completely helpless to offer any words of comfort or solace to her. We probably stood there talking for about 15 minutes. There were tears and nods and hugs.
USELESS
As she spoke I was struggling on the inside, struggling to come up with something worth saying in that moment. But instead I stood there crying, sweaty and stinky from my run, and just, well, useless.
5 MINUTES AT A TIME
But then she told me she had been in his room that morning, and that it was a hard day. She said she was taking it 5 minutes at a time, that’s how she gets through each day. She said that she has been so amazed at how God sends the right people right at the right moment, “like you”, she said.
LIKE ME
Like me?! I was stinky and sweaty and gross, and all I could offer were my tears. I had no words, no wisdom, no comfort. But, yes, like me. Somehow my tears and hugs in the middle of a busy gym brought encouragement to go another 5 minutes. Somehow those things spoke of God’s love and comfort in the midst of unspeakable pain.
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS
Isn’t that really what we are supposed to be? Christians, I mean. Aren’t we supposed simply be the manifestation of God’s love in the midst of a tumultuous world? Ultimately it doesn’t come down to how seamless the Sunday morning services went, or how well we solved the problems at work that day. It doesn’t come down to any of the things we might think are important outside of God’s love. It all comes down to that. A God that loves us enough to die so He could be with us. It all comes down to that. A love that shines through our lives in the everyday…
At the gym
At school
At the grocery store
At church
Mark 12
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.”
It all comes down to love. So choose to be His love to a hurting world today.
