The God Who Says, "Me, too"

I sat across the table from here and told her my story. The one where I was rejected and grieved the loss. The one where I was made out to be the bad guy. The story I have never quite gotten over. She listened and nodded her head and then in so many words she said,

"Me, too."

She had been rejected and had grieved it. She knew what it was like to be the bad guy when in essence she was the victim. It would probably be a story she would never quite move past. Some things are so grievous that you heal and become strong, but you are forever changed.

I write my thoughts down on paper. I tell Him the truth. Really, the outcome has been hard...does He know what it's like to be the one rejected? Does He know the pain of abuse? Can He fathom the process of healing? And quietly, I hear Him say,

"Me, too."

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." (Isaiah 53:3)

Sometimes we just need a friend who gets us...who can relate to the story of our lives, but most of all, we need a God who says, "Me, too." As crazy as it sounds there is strength in another's sorrow. Just knowing that others have walked what we walked can give us the courage to face the conflict, grieve the loss, and fight for healing. When we listen to another's story and find ours in theirs a bond is formed.

So today can you...

• reach out to another hurting soul?
• listen to someone's story?
• tell your own?
• focus on the God who knows your pain and says "Me, too"?

Here are some more "Me, too" verses not only about God's empathy for us, but how we can be the strength in someone's sorrow:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you make take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless. Psalm 10:14

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Isaiah 53:4

In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Isaiah 63:9

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

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. II Corinthians 1:3-4