Isaiah 40

"Comfort, yes, comfort my people," says your God.
Isaiah 40:1

How many of us have been given a task to comfort those in pain?
Easy answer: All of us.

The problem that I can see within Christianity, or Western Christianity, or even just in the West is that we try to flee from pain. We do everything we can to live life to its fullest and to pursue happiness: eudaimonia. We love to be joyful and happy and giddy and smiling all the time, and if we aren't happy then we must be doing something wrong. There is always joy to be found in the day...

Nope.

Well, yes, kind of. There is a time for weeping and a time for joy (Ecclesiastes 3), and I think our society wants to just rush over the hard stuff. We don't want to embrace that bad things happen to good people. It's not just the theodicy. That sometimes help to explain the existence of "evil," but sometimes randomness is more likely to blame. And the best thing, I've found, is to give the bad times just as much thought and consideration as the good.

We run away from our problems instead of embracing them as part of our story.

I'm not making an attempt to theologically explain away the pain, but as people of God, we have an obligation to understand that we must be comforters to those around us. We must allow God's Paraclete into our lives to help our neighbors.

We must be willing to be there to listen to people lament. We must be willing to comfort those who seem to have no comfort in sight.

And we must be willing to accept comfort from others. This is a team effort, getting through life. We are all God's people, and we are all responsible for each other.

To build one up. To restore hope. To rekindle dying dreams. To speak life.

To be people who actually live, and to touch people with God's love.