Pass It On

I think I have mentioned that I have been going to a Griefshare group. It has been really good for me. This last week, they talked about how going through a grief experience automatically qualifies you to help other grieving people. I can completely understand what they mean. I think of myself the way I was before Steve died, and I realize that I would been uncomfortable at best around someone who had lost someone. I wouldn't have known what to say and I would have felt awkward. Now, it is so different. I have an immediate draw to that person, and I immediately empathize with him or her. In the grief group, they talked about how I will grow in my ability to comfort others. Early on, it may not be much more than giving a heartfelt hug, but it will grow. Then, today, I was at work (I work at an insurance office) and a girl came in whose husband had just passed away. She was young. I got up, went around the desk and gave her a hug and told her how sorry I was. I listened as she told me her situation and was able to share that I had recently experienced something similar. I could tell that it made her feel good to have someone hug her and be able to kind of understand (although, I'm not sure anyone can ever truly understand--every situation is unique). It also felt so good to me to be able to react to her in that way rather than feeling awkward. There's a verse in the Bible that says that God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we have received from God. What a beautiful picture. Rather than being a container of the comfort I receive from God, I am a conduit--it flows to me, then through me to someone else. The neat thing is, it never runs out...God just keeps pouring and pouring.