Why I hurt when you hurt…
When I wrote today’s date in my journal this morning, I kind of gasped.
We are one week away from wrapping up the first month of 2022.
Russ went to Austin this weekend to help John move. I had a couple of obligations that I had committed to so supported long distance. I have a tendency to fritter away time so I made lists and wrote out goals and stuck faithfully to checking things off.
Family and friends were sweet and would text or call and keep me company in just the right amount to take up some space in a long stretch of alone time. I can be by myself okay for long periods of the day, but I do need contact with others and surely appreciated that our people know this <3
I also walked a lot. It was bitter cold, but I felt like I needed to get out several times a day and just be in the fresh air and sun that was available to my bundled up self. The cold is so drying and even though I wore good heavy gloves or mittens, my hands have felt the damage.
Last night I woke with such a soreness in the corner of one my thumbs. One of the down sides of winter in the Midwest is cracked skin around the edges or ones fingers. I thought for sure I had some kind of major infection and got up to see what was going on, but it was just a teeny tiny crack right at the tip of the corner of one nail.
I slathered Vitamin E ointment on it and went back to bed. It still hurt and throbbed and robbed my of a little sleep for some time.
But it made me think about a Bible verse. Because of course if I am awake in the night, I am praying and trying to think what words to pray and asking God to remind my of HIs Words.
So this came to my mind.
If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored, the whole body will be happy.
1 Corinthians 12:26. CEV
It is in a whole passage where Paul is explaining how we can understand the inner workings of the Body of Christ by literally looking at our own bodies. Different parts do different things. All the parts work together. Not one is more important than another. And so when we are sore in a muscle or a wound, our whole body suffers with it.
It made me think of the many who are wounded and hurting in the Body of Christ right now. So yes, I am going to feel discomfort because we are all one unit. The discomfort makes me feel helpless, so I turn to God who is our help, and I pray.
Prayer is effective not only because I am inviting God to work in others pain, but as I pray God reminds me He is in control. He reminds me that not only will He comfort and help the one for whom I am praying; He will comfort and help me too. Because we are all one Body, His work is universally applied to all of us.
As the salve soothed the ache of that little cut, the rest of my body was able to relax and eventually fall asleep and rest and heal.
We are blessed to feel the pain of others in the Body and to pray for them.
I hope you know how much God loves you and how much others love you with His love <3