I've been there

I have a student who has been issued a laptop by the school because of some disabilities that affect his handwriting.  On Thursday, he and another student were trying to put the finishing touches on a project when he experienced what all of us who depend on computers have experienced at least once.  His computer stopped working properly.  He had no way to access any of his prior work.  He and his partner were obviously distraught and called me over to see if I could fix it.

After he described what was happening, I immediately knew his problem - a bad video inverter.  I only knew this because I had experienced the same thing.  I wasn't able to fix his problem, but I could at least diagnose it and then empathize with him because nothing is more frustrating than to be dependent on a computer and not be able to get your stuff.

How many times in life has someone come along and provided comfort because they had experienced the same thing as you?  How about the other way around?  That's the beauty of community and relationships.  We usually only focus on sharing the bad things in life, but sharing the good things makes the good things even better.

There is one who can empathize with EVERYTHING we have ever experienced.  We can take all our problems and all our joys.  We can even take him our sin that we are powerless to do anything about and he will be there for us.  He'll even take that away if we ask him.  That's why I'm on a faith journey with Jesus.  He'll be there.