So often we feel helpless when loved ones are sick or in despair. We play doctor or counselor, offering advice to try to fix the problem. When things aren’t fixed, we feel even more helpless.
Scripture tells us that it is God’s desire to bring health and wholeness to all of creation. As people of God, we are called to be instruments of this healing, not by trying to be something we aren’t, but by being more of what we are. God equips and empowers us to weep with those who weep, to pray for those who hurt, to lay hands upon those who suffer, to make Christ’s compassion and healing presence known. Our faith gives us the courage to sit and listen to another’s pain when we’d rather try to fix it.
Instead of spending time feeling helpless and useless, we can bring healing through the gifts God has given us—gifts we have been equipped, empowered, and called to use in Christ’s name.
This message is adapted from a devotion by Kathie Bender Schwich, published in a Women of the ELCA stewardship guide. Today we celebrate The Holy Trinity or the First Sunday after Pentecost and Father’s Day.
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