Un-Comfort-Able

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.” So his father wept for him. (Genesis 27:34-35)

          How often do we refuse to be comforted? We think we have good reason to be upset. Sometimes, we do have good reason, and sometimes, we don’t. In either case, we are so invested in being upset, so determined to milk it for everything we can that we won’t let go of the pain or the anger.

          Dad is like that today. He doesn’t know where he is, and sometimes he doesn’t know who I am. But he is determined that what he believes to be true is true. He believes we’re in Florida and all the evidence we show that he’s in Pennsylvania is stuff we’re using to trick him for some unknown reason.

          As tragic as that is to deal with for him and us, we do the same thing all the time. We say “God is in control. God is good,” then go on and on about whatever is bothering us. In spite of what Scripture says, we tell others that we aren’t in a state of blessedness, but in the state of cursedness. Things are not as they should be because they are not as we’d like them. We refuse to be comforted.

          What does it take to be comfort-able? It takes being wiling to relax, to stay where we are, and allow others to be involved. It takes submission. It takes accepting what others give. It takes believing that something positive can happen. It takes hope. Right now, that’s a little difficult to find. WDA. WDA. Sometimes, when our focus is on reality as we dictate it, it takes letting go of what we demand