Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Pastor has mentioned often how, when we’ve come through a specific trouble, we are better able to help someone else who is struggling with the same problem. That’s not to say that you can’t comfort someone in need if you’ve never felt their pain; however, it is much easier to hear the cries of our brothers and sisters in Christ when we’ve experienced the same hardship.

Though they mean well, sometimes people will say things like, “I know how you feel,” when really, they don’t. Someone who’s fought cancer could offer advice or assistance to someone else who is battling it now. A mother can better understand the morning sickness and swelling that a pregnant woman may be experiencing. No matter what we’re struggling with, there is One who truly knows how you feel, One who has walked in your shoes…His name is Jesus.

Jesus came to this earth and suffered real pain and disappointment, the same kind we struggle with daily. Though He was fully God, He was also fully man, and therefore He felt agony and anguish. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, familiar with pain.” The pain He endured on the cross is unfathomable. He felt betrayal from a friend, He knew what it was to feel alone and misunderstood…all of it so that He could comfort us in our pain and distress.

The bible mentions that Jesus wept, which means he experienced great sadness. His tears prove to us that He was no stranger to pain and suffering yet they are a constant reminder that, though we are sinners, He loves each and every one of us. The day they crucified Him on the cross, Jesus bore every sin, every disease, every heartache, so that one day, when we need Him the most, He can truly say, “I know how you feel. Together we’ll work it out.”