(This was written some years ago by Mark Rutland, who is presently the President of Oral Roberts University. A version of it was published in Charisma magazine.)
A friend of mine who had sent his son up to bed heard him whimpering and went to check on him.
“What’s the matter, Little One?” he asked.
“Daddy, I’m scared in here alone.”
“But you’re not alone,” he explained. “Jesus is right here with you.”
“I know,” the little boy wailed. “But I want somebody with skin on his face!”
We all do, don’t we? Especially when we’re going through hard things. The Scripture says that God inhabits the praises of His people (see Ps. 22:3). But He also inhabits the comfort of His people. He is present in true COMFORT!
There is a remarkable menagerie of words expressing pain of every kind in Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth-words such as “affliction,” “anguish,” “beatings,” “distresses,” “fastings,” “fightings,” “labors,” “perils,” “persecutions,” “sorrows,” “stripes,” “sufferings,” “tears,” “tumults,” “weak” and “weakness.” These descriptors snap and snarl at the modern reader with ferocity, leading him to believe that in such seemingly inconsolable anguish, comfort is unimaginable. In our times of ‘hurt”…we long for comfort; and the Comforter longs to comfort us!
“When we were come into Macedonia,” Paul writes, “our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears” (2 Cor. 7:5, KJV).
Yet even in the midst of the most pain-filled epistle in the New Testament, there is the hope of …”nevertheless.” “Nevertheless God, that comforts those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more” (2 Cor. 7:6-7).
To be sure, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, but He uses Spirit-filled persons in community to comfort one another.
Beaten, afflicted, persecuted, suffering and weak, Paul the Apostle found the comfort of God in Titus and in his report of the love and concern of the Christians at Corinth. Was it God who comforted Paul? Or was it Titus? The answer is “yes.” It was both! God….with SKIN on!
The community of faith does not scold the orphan or the grieving widow for their grief or dismiss it lightly. The people of God dare not tell the hurting in their midst that they do not hurt, that they do not have a right to hurt. Even so, we are not wordless in the face of their pain. We do have one thing to say.
Nevertheless, we are here.
Like Titus, we are here. God in us can be with you and comfort you just as He comforted the great apostle through Titus.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:6 that God “comforts those that are cast down.” If, as many seem to think, God is peevish with the downcast and irritated at their lack of faith, He would upbraid them, not comfort them. We, the community of faith, like our God, must comfort the downcast who long for a word, a touch, and a face with skin on it.
The “nevertheless” of Paul was a very human Titus. Likewise, for someone else, we are just on the other side of nevertheless from that person’s deepest anguish.
John Wesley said, “I know of no holiness save social holiness.” He meant that we do not live out our piety in relationship with God alone, but in community with others.
The downside of community is that no one can test your sanctification like a friend or relative. The upside is that just when you are ready to collapse under the unbearable weight of grief and suffering, Titus shows up with love letters from Corinth.
Paul says that we are enabled to “comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Cor. 1:4). All of us have received of His comfort. So let’s take the time today to look around us and comfort those among us who are hurting.
Even when the world celebrates their “love day” called Valentine’s Day, let’s remember that not everyone will be showered with signs of love and affection. Some will be painfully reminded of their aloneness as they contrast their experience with those of other women who are receiving phone calls, cards, flowers, perfume and other gifts. For them, such festive days can be awkward rather than a special time.
Why not reach out with God’s comfort to some people…you know who are in this situation or another situation of loss? See what you can do to show special consideration to them and give them an extra measure of His love.
Adapted from “Nevertheless” by Mark Rutland, copyright 2001. Published by Charisma House.
