David Bahn – Reflections

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 2 Corinthians 1; Judges 4; 2 Chronicles 16; 17; Ezekiel 9.

2 Corinthians 1:3-11

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. ⁶ If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. ⁷ Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

⁸ For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. ¹¹ You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

When my younger sister died friends and family gathered at our home and brought us so much comfort by being there, offering words of love, food, and even moments of laughter. It was sorely needed. She had died at less than 8 years of age in a terrible accident in our home. Even my friends from college came over to be with me. The funeral service was comforting as well with the pastor likening her going to heaven with her going to our grandfather’s house – a wonderful analogy.

When my brother-in-law died it was quite the opposite. We went to be with my sister, and gathered at her house. But he had determined not to have any service and we resorted to printing out some Bible verses and laying them around the house. But there were no prayers. No message was shared. No comfort at all.

It doesn’t have to be at the time of someone’s death that we need comfort of share it with others. But death is that time when the need for comfort is so very obvious. There is a hole in one’s heart, an empty chair at the kitchen table, a void in the day when a loved one is gone. Our hearts ache. That is the price of love that death extracts from us.

That comfort will be different for each of us, for God comes to each of us according to our needs and his extraordinary grace and love. For one it may be a quiet conversation in a private place where you can let the tears flow. Another may wish to be surrounded by people coming and going, bringing food and cheer. Someone else may wish for a walk in the woods and an opportunity to express anger and frustration in prayer and conversation with God.

If people like Paul – the man who was extraordinarily successful and a hero of Christian mission – can need and express thankfulness for comfort he received, we can surely acknowledge our need for the comfort of brotherly love. And we must remember Jesus’ words, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” You may be either the comforter or the comforted. If the latter you are being prepared for the former. If the former, remember the comfort you have received from God, and use that as your motivation and strength.