Summary: The other day I heard a Christian describe how a mutual friend had made several “mistakes” while trying to comfort them during a time of difficulty. They complained that the friend offered advice, solutions, and even dared to quote Scripture, which bothered them. When I first was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer a couple of years ago, many friends, family, and even strangers reached out to me. What if, instead, they all had avoided me for fear of making a “mistake”? Today we are not only discouraged from reaching out for fear that we may make a “mistake,” but we are practically disqualified from doing so unless we have walked the same road of divorce, death, cancer, abuse, alcoholism, or even financial bankruptcy. Am I wrong in attempting to comfort my abandoned friend because I have not experienced the same kind of abandonment by my own wife? Is this the best we can find—the commiserating of those traveling the same path? I think not. Instead, let’s visit, call, and write. Encourage, counsel, comfort. And when we do, let’s quote verses like 2 Corinthians 1:3, where the apostle Paul praises “the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions.” That God, our God, wants nothing more than to be your friend’s comfort and solace today. This is Luis Palau.
