What do you feel?
By Erik Farstad
"Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders…you will never
believe." John 4:48
"You don't understand! You don't care! You don't know what it's like!"
Mary screamed. "I do care, I'm trying to understand…I want to help…I…"
Sue, Mary's friend, just didn't know what to say. "You don't have to
live with my pain. Your life is perfect…if only I could be you for just
a day…oh, I don't know. All I know is that in your body life wouldn't
be as painful." Mary lost herself in her tears. Sue just sat there,
"Gosh, I don't know if I want her pain?"
What you just read is very real. Conversations like Mary and Sue's are
happening all over the world, even as you read this. Everyone is cast
in this drama and for this one you are Sue. Mary is hurting inside. It
may be from abuse, confusion, loneliness or any other form of personal
or mental torment. Mary feels like she is alone, that no one cares and
that no one can help her. What do you do? What do you say?
Let's say for this drama that you could change places with Mary just
like she hopes for. Once successful in changing places, you feel a
sudden ping of hollowness. Almost instantly you are afraid to have
people close to you, you don't want them to touch you or even get near
you. Inside your mind you remember what it was like to be a little girl
playing in the park with your daddy. Then suddenly the scene becomes
dark and you see a grave, tears and crying. "Daddy!" you hear yourself
scream. You shiver from the pain; you are scared to be alone. You hear
voices tell you that the pain will go away with time, but they were all
liars! Just like that you're back at the present, staring at your old
body. You want back into your own body to escape the torment that is
swimming in Mary's body. Then it hits you. Mary is afraid to get close
to people because she is afraid they will leave her. The pain of her
father's death is eating away at her and she doesn't want to experience
that again. Living Mary's life made all the difference. Seeing with
her eyes made your eyes sting, her pain yours and her sorrow very real.
Are you connected with the world that God has created for you? God has
created a world with land, waters and living creatures. Are you walking
and swimming in His creation or are you skimming across the surface? If
you want to live the Christian life and make an impact for the gospel of
Jesus Christ you need to delve into this world. You need to walk up to
the crying child and sit there as long as it takes. You need to listen
to the wounded soldier telling his stories of pain and sorrow. You need
to talk the truth to the desperate and needy. How do you do this? You
become like Sue, you invest in the Mary's of this world. You give of
your time, your life and your wellbeing to those that need to hear of
hope, those that need to hear of love and to those that need to hear of
salvation!
There is another story. A son left his father to come to a distant
land. This son grew into a man and lived for just a short period of
time. This man felt every joy, every pain and every sorrow that could
be imagined. He was adored and loved but also ridiculed, hated and
eventually killed. As this man was suspended between heaven and earth
barely clinging to life he felt every sin, pain and sorrow that would
ever befall this land that he walked for thirty years. In a loud crash
of thunder and lightening it was all over, but not for you and me.
Jesus changed the world in an instant by feeling and taking upon himself
the world's sin and pain. Unless you know the need, hear the cry or
shed the tears of others you are just skimming across the surface.
What do you feel?
In Him, "E"