Tag: sorrow

“Gordon, how do you deal with so much suffering?”

Posted on by Gordon Rumford

“As your day so shall your strength be.”
Deuteronomy 33:25

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I have often been asked how I manage to hear of so much sorrow on a daily basis and not lose my mind or end up quitting my work as a crisis counsellor and pastor to people in pain. I am not terribly self conscious. That is, I do not think a lot about myself and how I manage things in my life. I don’t do self analysis concerning the issues I see in others. I have been told by others I show a considerable degree of compassion and at times I actually weep with those who weep as Jesus did.

However, my job is to help people organize their thoughts. They are rarely thinking clearly when I get involved with their crisis so I seek to do their thinking for them. Therefore I feel that I must show gentle composure to those I work with to address their issues. It is really helpful to them if I show the kindness of Jesus but I need to be the rock or stabilizing factor in the equation. I am looked to for a calm and peaceful spirit in the situation.

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“Gordon, how do you deal with so much suffering?”

Posted on by Gordon Rumford

“As your day so shall your strength be.”
Deuteronomy 33:25

Gordon Rumford Ministries - Daily Devotional

View in your web browser here
You can view a PDF version here
Download Adobe PDF reader here

I have often been asked how I manage to hear of so much sorrow on a daily basis and not lose my mind or end up quitting my work as a crisis counsellor and pastor to people in pain. I am not terribly self conscious. That is, I do not think a lot about myself and how I manage things in my life. I don’t do self analysis concerning the issues I see in others. I have been told by others I show a considerable degree of compassion and at times I actually weep with those who weep as Jesus did.

However, my job is to help people organize their thoughts. They are rarely thinking clearly when I get involved with their crisis so I seek to do their thinking for them. Therefore I feel that I must show gentle composure to those I work with to address their issues. It is really helpful to them if I show the kindness of Jesus but I need to be the rock or stabilizing factor in the equation. I am looked to for a calm and peaceful spirit in the situation.

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Prayer, Its Use and Abuse

Posted on by Gordon Rumford

“My Father,
if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away
unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”
Matthew 26:42

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As we ponder this prayer by Jesus we are seeing Him make a request and then qualify it with an expressed submission to the Father at the end. Why did Jesus make this request? Was He opposed to the horrors ahead of Him?

The ending to His prayer indicates His submission to whatever the Father had for Him to endure. What the problem was, is understood as being the dreadful fact that He had to have our sins laid on His holy person.

He had already said to the disciples in Gethsemane,

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“Gordon, how do you deal with so much suffering?”

Posted on by Gordon Rumford

“As your day so shall your strength be.” Deuteronomy 33:25

“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” (NIV)

I have often been asked how I manage to hear of so much sorrow on a daily basis and not lose my mind or end up quitting my work as a crisis counsellor and pastor to people in pain. I am not terribly self conscious. That is, I do not think a lot about myself and how I manage things in my life. I don’t do self analysis concerning the issues I see in others. I have been told by others I show a considerable degree of compassion and at times I actually weep with those who weep as Jesus did.

However, my job is to help people organize their thoughts. They are rarely thinking clearly when I get involved with their crisis so I seek to do their thinking for them. Therefore I feel that I must show gentle composure to those I work with to address their issues. It is really helpful to them if I show the kindness of Jesus but I need to be the rock or stabilizing factor in the equation. I am looked to for a calm and peaceful spirit in the situation.

When I am asked how I can hear about so much suffering and not get depressed I sometimes stop and seek to determine why I can remain in this vocation. First, I have to admit that at times I do get caught up in the situations to the level of getting very discouraged and feeling it may be too much. I do not suggest I always cope well with the issues I see in the lives of others.

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Prayer, its use and abuse

Posted on by Gordon Rumford

“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.” Matt. 26:42

As we ponder this prayer by Jesus we are seeing Him make a request and then qualify it with an expressed submission to the Father at the end. Why did Jesus make this request? Was He opposed to the horrors ahead of Him? The ending to His prayer indicates His submission to whatever the Father had for Him to endure. What the problem was, is understood as being the dreadful fact that He had to have our sins laid on His holy person.

He had already said to the disciples in Gethsemane, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Matt. 26:38. Our way of saying it might be, “The situation is killing me.” But in Jesus’ case the situation actually did kill Him. No person in history has suffered to the extent Jesus did.

God certainly allows us to come in our misery and ask Him to remove the pain or the source of our grief. We know that such extreme crises as the death of a loved one cannot be reversed in this life. However there is hope in many difficulties of life that the problem may go away if God chooses to give us relief. For this reason we come and ask for relief.

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