2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
It has been observed that Christ came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Our tendency is to comfort the comfortable (as any tyrant surrounded by sycophants bears witness) and afflict the afflicted (as Job's friends did). Part of this is due to our inveterate itch to play the prophet and claim to "know" that this blessing is a sign of God's favor and that trial is a sign of His disfavor. But, of course, we are not prophets and usually have no more idea what events mean than does Paddy's Pig. In the Church, especially, it is wise to beware of drawing simple conclusions about Divine Approval Rating which lies behind great suffering. Sure, people suffer for their sins at times. But then, some people suffer for the sins of others. One suffered for the sins of the whole world — and He had done nothing wrong at all. From His wounds come the source of all life. The same is true of us: the place of our greatest woundedness is usually very close to the place from whence our gifts are poured out to the world. Today, ask God to make your wounds a source of life to others.
