Fellowship of Pain

“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.” 

-- Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Everyone experiences difficulties in life, and those difficulties did not necessarily come from God.  But even before you were born, God knew the adversity you would face, and He did two things:  First, He gave you everything you would need to persevere.  And second -- and this is the part often overlooked -- He made sure you would have plenty of opportunity to help others who face circumstances just like yours.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer had a name for this phenomenon. He called it, “The Fellowship of Those Who Bear the Mark of Pain.” If you have experienced difficult physical or emotional pain, then you are a member of this fellowship.  Dr. Schweitzer believed that once your pain is extinguished, you are not at liberty to just take up your life as it was before your pain.  Instead, you are now part of a fellowship of people whose eyes have been opened, and are therefore called by God to help others.