All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NLT)
Years ago during telemarketing training (yes, I used to be one of those detested people who called you up and offered to sell you something, usually while you were having dinner)… anyway, I was trained to expect immediate pushback from the potential customer. As a result, the company drilled a number of memorized responses in my brain to counter those initial refusals. Of course, all of them were horrible and cheesy. But every once in a while one of them would work.
“Hey, I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way too. But here’s what I found..”
I don’t know what it was about feel, felt, and found, but for some reason the person on the other end of the line would at least give me an additional minute to make my pitch. Perhaps because they felt sorry for me, or maybe they sensed some level of sincerity from me with what I was trying to sell them.
I got out of that line of work, thank God. I truly sucked at it and made absolutely no money… it was all commission based. But I never forgot how successful that one response was. There’s just something genuine about telling someone that you’ve been where they are and know what they’re going through. And better yet, you might have something to offer them that they desperately need.
The apostle Paul knew a thing or two about hardship and trouble. But he was also very knowledgeable of the power of God’s comfort. In fact, God was his primary source of comfort. And Paul also knew a thing or two about “feel, felt, and found.” He often expressed this when he would share the Gospel with his unconverted fellow Jews, and he would communicate that feel-felt-found response masterfully as he wrote to his fellow Christians who were enduring hardship and persecution. Perhaps we can even see Paul reliving some of the troubles that he experienced as he was penning his thoughts and words of comfort and encouragement to them. Moreover, he would often remind them that his suffering was far from over, as he wrote several of his letters while imprisoned.
But while Paul would relate to their circumstances on a very personal level, he wouldn’t stop there. He would go a step further and offer them something he had: the same comfort that God had given him. Paul knew that there was a profound blessing that comes with hardship and suffering. Not only did Paul see his suffering as a form of worship to Christ, remembering what He endured on his behalf… but that the comfort God provided him during his troubles was to be used to encourage and comfort others going through similar circumstances.
So when someone comes up to you and they’re going through something you can relate to, you might say to them: “You know, I know exactly how you feel. At one time in my life I felt that same way. But here’s what I found…”
What a wonderful way to encourage and comfort someone, and perhaps even share what Christ has done in your life. Who knows, they might want what you have too.
Former Blackout Artist 