Sympathy Pains

When my children were (very) small I would find that I would have symptoms similar to their ailments. For example, I would experience a dull ache in my ear whenever they had ear infections. And, most certainly, my heart would ache when I saw them suffer emotionally.

These days I feel a variety of sympathy pains.

One boy was badly burned by the sun. The skin all over his back and shoulders is blistered and bubbled. It oozes and a layer or two comes off each time he removes his clothing. This same boy is "burning the candle at both ends," working full time while shearing sheep, giving lessons, and practicing for this weekend's performances. He is up before the crack of down, and home well after I go to bed at night. I'm exhausted to see him exhausted.

Another boy has had a very discouraging experience at his first job. His employer keeps him walking back and forth in the same position for hours on end. His feet are swollen and covered with blisters and open wounds.

My two Jamaican "daughters" sent money home with Western Union, only to be scammed by the store receiving the money on the Jamaican side. One sends money home to her father, who is caring for her child over the summer while she works at a minimum wage job selling french fries to Americans.

Last night I had a terrible migraine. The pain kept me from sleeping, and I tossed and turned for hours to the sound of the sheep dog barking at deer. The next morning I learned that my dear cousin had fallen into a coma, the result of an undetected brain tumor.

Phil 2:1-4 (Phi) Now if you have known anything of Christ's encouragement and of his reassuring love; if you have known something of the fellowship of his Spirit, and of compassion and deep sympathy, do make my joy complete--live together in harmony, live together in love, as though you had only one mind and spirit between you. Never act from motives of rivalry or personal vanity, but in humility think more of each other than you do of yourselves. None of you should think only of his own affairs, but consider other people's interests also.