The other night I had a songwriting night with the band. We spent some time talking about what God is doing in our lives right now. One common thread was that He was showing us how blessed we are compared to what some people face everyday.

This thought in my mind triggered from a conversation in one of our worship meetings about how there are so many people who have a normal that looks so different than our normal. What about the family who has the autistic or down syndrome child? Their everyday normal looks so different than mine. That was a realization of how clueless I am in my life. I have no idea what it feels like to be in that type of situation.

I began to really think about it a lot over the next week and then I found myself at this songwriting session having a similar discussion. We talked about being thankful for what we have, but then something triggered in me.

Not only should we have that realization, but as Christians we should also be pursuing to feel the pain of another person’s normal.

Perhaps that is why Paul says count it all joy to go through tough things.

So these lyrics began to come out:

Can you feel the world
Can you feel it’s pain
I want to know, what it feels like

Okay, so then as we progressed further into this thought, what is the purpose of a Christian feeling the pain of the suffering people. Of course, the first place to look is Jesus.

Jesus took the pain of the world on His shoulders so that He could be the redeeming factor in our lives.

That’s it. As Christians, we carry that same redeeming quality called salvation. Of course suffering goes way beyond the homeless and poor. What about those who are lonely, hopeless, addicted, and scared. Maybe we are called to seek out some suffering so that we can be a redeeming factor in that. Not only do we take it on when it inadvertently hits us in life, but pursue it and count it all joy!