Caring

The prophet Isaiah tells us that Jesus ‘carried our sorrows’. (Isa 53). I know that Jesus is the unique sin bearer and I would not want in any way to equate our personal ministry as Christians with the atoning sacrifice of our Lord. But I do believe that this idea of Christ carrying our sorrows can help us in our understanding of what it means to really care about people.

I was visiting in the home of a dear Christian lady a while back who was in a great deal of pain. I tried my best to comfort her and before leaving I prayed with her and her husband and I placed my hands on her and I prayed for her that God would intervene and bring her relief and healing. But sometime afterward I found myself crying.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of how closely related the two words ‘carry’ and ‘care’ are but I think it has got to be significant. I remember hearing one time that in at least one language (and I don’t remember which one) the word for compassion translates literally into English as ‘your pain in my heart’. When we care for people their pain and sorrow stays with us and we carry it around with us in our hearts.

One of my favorite passages is from Paul’s letter to the Romans where he tells us that we are to “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” Somehow, life just doesn’t seem real unless we are able to do both.

But that’s not the end of it, is it. If we were to take unto ourselves all of the hurts of others along with our own burdens, allowing them to simply accumulate, there is no way we would be able to bear it. We would sink before we made it through a day. We are instructed to ‘carry each others burdens’ and by so doing ‘fulfill the law of Christ’ (Gal 6:2), but there remains one more important thing to do with all of this. The apostle Peter tells us that we are to “cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for us.” (1Pet 5:7)

Together, as a community of faith, we must learn to go to God continually and give it all over to the only One who is really able to bear up under it all.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Heb 4:16