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“People around you may express sympathy, but it doesn’t help.”

A thought by Timothy Keller (2016-10-25) from his book, Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ (p. 51). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Have you found that true?

Tim says, “When you are happy and things are going well, you feel like part of the human race. But when something bad happens and real suffering comes to you, it feels so lonely. People around you may express sympathy, but it doesn’t help. Then you meet someone who has been through exactly the same thing. They know what it is like. You pour your heart out to them. You listen to them and their opinions because they have been through the same thing. When they comfort you, you are comforted.”

Think of this.  Tim says, “The incarnation means that God suffered, and that Jesus triumphed through suffering. That means, as Hebrews 2: 17– 18 said, that Jesus now has an infinite power to comfort. Christmas shows you a God unlike the god of any other faith. Have you been betrayed? Have you been lonely? Have you been destitute? Have you faced death? So has he! Some say, ‘You don’t understand. I have prayed to God for things, and God ignored my prayer.’ In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus cried out, ‘Father . . . may this cup be taken from me’ (Matthew 23: 39) and he was turned down. Jesus knows the pain of unanswered prayer. Some say, ‘I feel like God has abandoned me.’ What do you think Jesus was saying on the cross when he said, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’ (Matthew 27: 46)?”

Tim then says, “Christianity says God has been all the places you have been; he has been in the darkness you are in now, and more. And, therefore, you can trust him; you can rely on him, because he knows and has the power to comfort, strengthen, and bring you through.”

Christmas tells us that there is someone who know, who understands and he cares.


How does that make a difference in what you are going through?
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