Looking for Comfort

As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. - Luke 19:41-42

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. - 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Jesus is deeply affected by the world around him. He’s brought to tears by the loss and loneliness of those who remain far off from the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

Although it’s a different approach, there are some real similarities when Paul says that the kind of comfort we receive when we weep is meant to be shared with others.

Both Jesus and Paul don’t allow comfort to be merely private. Not that private comfort isn’t important or even essential. But perhaps the need for our comfort should come at least in part by the suffering of the world (as with Jesus in the above passage) and perhaps the purpose of our comfort is not simply to enjoy it but to pass it on to a world in desperate need of comfort. These are the twin missional aspects of comfort in loss.

How missional are you when it comes to comfort? is there some loss in the world God may be calling you to embrace so much that you truly need comfort? Is there some loss you’ve experienced that God has met you in which you might go outwards towards others and meet them in that sort of loss as well?