Thursday; July 23

I have a confession to make – I am a sufferer of gout.  Now, if you don’t know what this is, consider yourselves fortunate.  If you have had gout, you may not know what causes it, but you know when you have it.  From what I have been able to learn it is caused by extra uric acid in your body.  Depending on who you ask, it can be caused by a variety of things; however, when the pain is keeping you awake at night knowledge is a lot less important than relief.  Rarely do I give much thought to the joint on my left big toe, but during an attack, that’s about all I can think about!

The reason I bring up gout is something Paul wrote in I Corinthians where he described the church as a body.  As he begins summing up his thoughts, he notes, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” (I Corinthians 12:26).  As I read this, I have flashbacks to gout.  The rest of my body can feel pretty good, but when I get an attack in the toe, it makes me feel like everything hurts! 

So, here is the moral of the story – is there someone hurting who is negatively impacting a group you are in?  Maybe it is someone at work, a person in your family or even a believer in the church.  No matter where it is, if one person is hurting, it is apt to cause the rest of us to feel the pain.  When we know someone is struggling, the best thing we can do is help them recover so that our whole group can be restored.  It doesn’t make sense to ignore gout (even if it was possible) – it needs to be treated.  Similarly, it isn’t productive to ignore someone who is in physical, emotional or spiritual pain – they need to be helped because their healing can not only make them feel better, but it can enhance all of us.

Do you know someone who is struggling?  How can you help? 

Think About It!