Sadness can break us.
The death of a child. How can we handle that? Financial ruin destoys many people. A devastating illness, or divorce. That’s a wound that never heals.
How can we minister to others, when our pain is so great we can no longer face the world?
Jesus had a favored cousin, John. We know him as John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, who baptized Jesus when the spirit of God in the form of a dove hovered over his head, saying, “This is my Son, in whom I am very pleased.”
Then John was beheaded by Herod. Jesus was devastated, and he had to find a quiet place to deal with his sorrow.
Matthew 14:13 tells us:
“When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart.”
That’s only the first of the verse, telling of Jesus’ desire to weep in the privacy of his overwhelming grief. The rest of the verse tells us of the insensitivity of those who followed after him.
“And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.”
What do we do when grief overwhelms us? Do we shut down, lock the bedroom door, and pull our bedding over us to hide? Do we let the shopping go, refuse to cook, and shrug at the reminder that the grass needs trimmed?
Jesus stepped out of his grief and performed one of the most incredible miracles of his ministry. This crowd is the one he fed with the five loaves and two fishes.
When the world treats us cruelly, sometimes we can only follow the example of Jesus. We need to crawl out of our sorrow-place and minister to the needy around us. It’s a God-thing. It’s a Jesus-thing. It should be our thing.
Our ministry to others isn’t dependent on our feelings. It flows from us because others need the love of Jesus to pour from our hands.
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Code: FGO.F.03.17b.vp.kjv