Sometimes in life I think we see others pain, but we don’t learn from it. Or we tend to spend time with people who are like us because we can relate to them, but they don’t force us to grow outside our comfort zones.
This first week in Puerto Rico, our groups have spent time serving through manual labor and house visits. Serving people of the church by cleaning yards, painting houses, scrubbing bathroom floors, and just spending time with the people. But there was a common theme among the people we helped this week.
DEATH. It’s such a hard topic to discuss and even harder to understand. How do you comfort a mother who just lost her son? Or an elderly lady whose husband died after 60 years of marriage? Or a Vietnam Veteran who lost, for the second time in his life, his wife to death? What we discovered this week is that we can’t.
Christ has to be their comfort, we can just offer them encouragement to lean on Him. We can’t cause them to not give in to their depression, we can only give our time to spend time with them so for just a few hours they don’t feel so alone.
The amazing thing about all three of these beautiful people is that even though they are struggling with one of the hardest things in life, their faith shines through. It was one of the most encouraging things I have ever witnessed. I’ve never lost someone so close to me, but I can’t imagine being able to still say “God is so good” at the end of the day when the time comes that I am in their shoes.
Their faith through their struggle has given me more of a want for God in my life. So that when the time comes when I lose someone so close to me I will be able to still proclaim that God is good. I will be able to know He will hold me up when I feel like I can’t stand on my own. I’ll be able to rejoice in the fact that even through my struggles, Christ can shine through.
We all struggle with loss. Even if it’s not to the extreme of death. People and things come and go in our lives, and if our faith isn’t solid the things of this world can easily become our comfort. Those comforts though will never truly fill the empty holes in our lives. So I encourage all of you to seek more of God in your lives, just as the widows have encouraged me this week. Learn from the pain of others so that when pain comes your way you can face it with God on your side. Let Christ be your comfort.
Fun Facts::
Ninja sounds are wonderful in any language.
Leftovers save lives.
The joy and serving spirit of others is intoxicating.
Living with 12 people in one room is slightly ridiculous.
