Walk of Life, Day 25 – August 2020 – Thoughts from the Book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 25:20 “As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.”
John and Judson were very good friends who lived in the same village and attended the same college. Though they had been friends for many years, every villager when they came across these two friends, they would greet John with a smile and bless him. They did not care much about Judson. Judson was curious to know what John did to attract people. So, he started to observe the deeds of John and tried to copy them. One day, an old lady of that village passed away and her only son was weeping very badly. John and Judson went to that person to comfort him on the loss of his mother. John said, “Do not cry. She is not just your mother, she was my mother too. She always took good care of me. Whenever you were not in town, she asked me to give her company. She shared many valuable suggestions with me. It is definitely a great loss for us both but we need to be strong.” As soon as he ended speaking these words that person stood up and hugged John. Elderly people who saw this started praising John for his kind words at such a young age. Judson did not miss the opportunity and recorded all the words spoken by John in his mind. A few days later, a young man of the same village lost his wife in a road accident. When Judson came to hear this, he did not wait for John to come. he ran to that young man’s house and saw him cry very badly. No one dared to go and stop him from crying because that was the extent of grief . Judson thought it was a wonderful opportunity to gain the favor of the public and become famous as John. He started repeating the same speech which was delivered by John few days back. You can imagine what could have happened. He returned home with wounds all over his body.
This is the sad reality of today’s society. Especially as believers, we take situations and people for granted. We do not allow the Lord Jesus to work in us. We set up few rules looking at other believers and try to imitate them. One such thing is mentioned in the verse above. As the children of God, we feel that we are perfect and to wait in any situation would make people think we are incapable. This is not true. We should never be thinking about what others would think when we do any work. When a brother of ours is hurt, we rush to him and share the learnt words of comfort. However, those learnt words or ready-made words do not comfort that person. There is a danger of being misunderstood. It is a good gesture to go to that brother who is hurt but if you go hastily without being trained by God then you are going to make things worse. Do you know how God teaches us to comfort others? He first takes us through that situation, then comforts us and trains us to comfort others in future. Without being comforted by the Lord you can not comfort others. If you are trying to do so then you are like that school kid who tries to learn the answer just to write it in the exam and later forgets.
It is true that this world is filled with people who are leading their lives in despair. Do not try to comfort them using your knowledge. Everything might seem fine to you but you will never know what that person is going through. Sometimes it becomes very hard for us to understand ourselves. How can we understand how the other person is feeling? When you pray to the Lord Jesus, He will equip you with all wisdom and use you as His channel in comforting others. Whatever you do, remember it should bring glory to God alone.
