Over the past few days I was reminded what a special privilege we have in ministering to hurting people. In staff meeting, David told us about a woman he met on Sunday in the hallway who had recently been abandoned by her husband of 30+ years. I guess that happens, but it was somewhat shocking to hear that her husband was the Senior Pastor of a large mainline church in town. She felt abandoned and alone, losing her husband, her church and her support network, as her husband was evidently able to carry on his work in their church.
A couple days later I sat at my desk meeting with a couple working through some premarital curriculum. The young lady, as sweet and personable as I can imagine, told me with tears in her eyes how her parents have been divorced and remarried three times. Her mother has a serious substance abuse problem and three times her addictions have broken apart the family. The pain and bitterness were palpable.
There’s very little we can do or say to people like these. We can only try to care for them unconditionally and gently encourage them to discover the healing love of God. Our world is broken and we are sometimes harshly awakened to that fact. We’re snatched from the relative comfort of our “church business” world and drawn into the real issues that Jesus died to overcome.
