There is a wonderful woman at church who I get to spend a lot of time with every Sunday. I think there is a lot of people who could learn a lot from her if they spent the time to get to know her.

Our pastor is doing a sermon series on 2 Corinthians. Today we looked at 1:3-7.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

As with most sermons there were essentially three main points:
1) Comfort doesn't come from chocolate, new shoes, alcohol etc., but God.
2) Life is not always going to be all cotton candy and rainbows, especially if you follow Christ.
3) There is a purpose in suffering, to comfort others.

The pastor talked about how we often expect life to be easy and we try to avoid any difficulties. When difficulties arise we blame God and get angry that we have to endure such things. For many, that is the only time God is acknowledged.

This woman is one of the few who I would classify as having the right to be angry with God. She is disabled, she has difficulty talking and because of this can be very cut off from people and people often just nod and smile when she talks. She is in a wheel chair, suffers from a great deal of pain and has had to have many surgeries.

As we were walking out of the sanctuary she says to me,

"Why do people get mad at God? Why do they get angry at him, he's not mean, he's the God of comfort and peace."

I didn't know what to say, I knew the answer though, because we are selfish and self-serving. We are all just a bunch of jerks.