Never Forget_ Discovering Hope in the Aftermath of Tragedy [NOOK Book] - Max Lucado [4]
Intently. Carefully. The prayers are honored as precious jewels. Purified and empowered, the words rise in a delightful fragrance to our Lord. “The smoke from the incense went up from the angel’s hand to God” (Revelation 8:4). Incredible. Your words do not stop until they reach the very throne of God.
One call and heaven’s fleet appears. Your prayer on earth activates God’s power in heaven.
You are the someone of God’s kingdom. Your prayers move God to change the world. You may not understand the mystery of prayer. You don’t need to. But this much is clear: Actions in heaven begin when someone prays on earth. What an amazing thought!
When you speak, Jesus hears.
And when Jesus hears, the world is changed.
All because someone prayed.
—MAX LUCADO
America Looks Up
BECOME A COMFORTER
When we go through adversity it is so reassuring to have someone there to walk with us. It is so comforting to know our God is “the father of all comfort” who has promised never to leave us or to forsake us. One of the simple things that we can do in the midst of tragedy is to reach out to people with compassion and understanding—to walk with those in need, to comfort them. People need the loving touch, the embrace of a friend. We need someone to reach out to us in troubling times. Reaching out implies doing something, doesn’t it? Compassionate people are those who feel the pain of others and act to alleviate that pain. . . .
The Scriptures depict God as a loving father caring for His children as a tender, nurturing nurse and as a mother hen hovering over and protecting her chicks. These metaphors are pictures of a God committed to compassionate care for His children.
A fundamental requisite for those who seek to comfort others is the ability to forget about self. It is so easy for us to become enamored of our own affairs and get caught up in our own journey to significance and success. We must work hard to put others first. Who can ever forget images of Mother Teresa in the suburbs of Calcutta pouring out her life for the poor and needy? And what about the self-sacrificing plane passengers who lost their lives while attempting to thwart the hijackers from using the plane as an instrument of further death and destruction?
We must become successful comforters by being present while others weep, by sharing a shoulder for others to lean on, and by being a reliable and careful listener. We must be dependable and trustworthy with the thoughts that are shared with us and avoid giving hasty answers or worn-out cliches to those who grieve. Grieving people need the safety of friends who hold them up rather than hold them accountable for what they express in anger and frustration. Yes, there is the great opportunity for us to be channels of mercy and comfort in the name of our Lord.
—CHARLES STANLEY
When Tragedy Strikes
TO LIVE WITH COMPASSION
If someone asked you if you were compassionate, you might readily say yes. Or at least, “I believe so.” But pause to examine the word compassion and answering gets more complicated. For the word comes from roots that mean literally to “suffer with”; to show compassion means sharing in the suffering “passion” of another. Compassion understood in this way asks more from us than a mere stirring of pity or a sympathetic word.
To live with compassion means to enter others’ dark moments. It is to walk into places of pain, not to flinch or look away when another agonizes. It means to stay where people suffer. Compassion holds us back from quick, eager explanations when tragedy meets someone we know or love. . . .
In his penetrating study, The Betrayal of the Self, the psychoanalyst Arno Gruen shows convincingly how “the actual source of our cruelty and callousness lies in the rejection of our suffering.”1
For we may fall into the illusion that we own people, that we can use them, that we have a right to manage their feelings. By offering premature advice