Comparing Trials

HAPPY FOURTH of JULY! The Internet Cafe is THRILLED to welcome Jocelyn Green! She is an award-winning freelance writer and author of Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives (www.faithdeployed.com), from which this devotional was taken.

The Internet Cafe Team would like to extend a HEARTFELT THANK YOU to each and every military family. Thank you for the sacrifices that you make each and everyday, in your commitment to the freedom of America. God Bless America!

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Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 nasb

I sat in our Bible study and watched another woman share a prayer request. She was having a hard time dealing with the fact that her parents and sister's family had moved across the country. After years of living in the same small town of Homer, Alaska, this woman missed them terribly and was growing bitter about it.

As I listened to her share with broken voice and many tears, I'm ashamed to admit I had no compassion for her whatsoever. The first thing that jumped into my mind was, "You call that bad? Try being a military wife! We hardly ever get to live near our extended families. We don't even live with our own husbands half the time!"

I carried my "I have it worse than you" attitude home with me that day. I snuggled up to it to make myself feel more virtuous or worthy somehow. But the tighter I held on to it, the less Christ was able to use me. I used my own trials as something to be proud of. What a ridiculous thing to boast about!

Proverbs 14:10 nasb says, "The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy." When I read that verse, it seems to tell me that each person's burden causes him/her a pain that should not be diminished just because someone else has it worse. It is impossible and worthless to compare trials. A truly humble person would have compassion and bear one another's burdens no matter how they "rank" next to my own.

In The Life You've Always Wanted, John Ortberg says this: "Humility …involves a healthy self-forgetfulness. We will know we have begun to make progress in humility when we find that we get so enabled by the Holy Spirit to live in the moment that we cease to be preoccupied with ourselves, one way or the other." When we are with others, we're not assigning value to their prayer requests and feeling more spiritual if our own trials seem more acute.

In Galatians 6:2, Paul does not say, "Bear one another's burdens only if you deem the burden of sufficient magnitude. If it isn't a big deal to you, go ahead and let your sister in Christ figure it out on her own. She'll get over it." We are to "Bear one another's burdens"—period.

Philippians 2:4-5 nasb tells us, "Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus." Now, if anyone had the right to consider other people's complaints as petty, Jesus did. Jesus knew he would die a horrific death on the cross to pay for the sins of the people who put him there—and yet he took time to comfort and heal thousands of people with lesser trials. May we seek to model Jesus' humility and compassion in our own lives.

Ask

Am I harboring feelings of being more spiritual because of the difficult circumstances the military has given me?

How can I communicate love and understanding for other people this week?

Pray

Lord,
It's so easy to focus on my own troubles. Please grant me the humility to set them aside so I can be genuinely available to minister to my brothers and sisters in Christ without comparing our burdens. Help me get my mind of myself by serving other people this week.

Amen.

Jocelyn Green is an award-winning freelance writer and author of Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives (www.faithdeployed.com), from which this devotional was taken. She and her husband Rob live with their two children in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She also has a facebook for faith deployed wives! You'll find it here!

“Reprinted with permission from Moody Publishers”