Suffering Together

<p>In 2013, seventy-year-old James McConnell, a British Royal Marine veteran, died. McConnell had no family, and staff from his nursing home feared no one would attend his funeral. A man tapped to officiate McConnell&rsquo;s memorial service, posted a Facebook message: &ldquo;In this day and age it is tragic enough that anyone has to leave this world with no one to mourn their passing, but this man was family. . . . If you can make it to the graveside . . . to pay your respects to a former brother in arms then please try to be there.&#8221; Two-hundred Royal Marines packed the pews!</p> <p>These British compatriots exhibited a biblical truth: we&rsquo;re tied to one another. &ldquo;The body is not made up of one part, but of many,&rdquo; Paul says (1 Corinthians 12:14). We&rsquo;re not isolated. Just the opposite: we&rsquo;re bound in Jesus. Scripture reveals organic interconnection: &ldquo;If one member suffers, all the members suffer with [him]&rdquo; (v. 26 nasb). As believers in Jesus, members of God&rsquo;s new family, we move toward one another, into the pain, into the sorrow, into those murky places where we would fear to go alone. But thankfully we do <em>not</em> go alone.</p> <p>Perhaps the worst part of suffering is when we feel we&rsquo;re drowning in the dark all by ourselves. God, however, creates a new community that suffers together. A new community where no one should be left in the dark.</p>