Close Enough...

"In a contagious world, we learn to keep our distance. If we get too close to those who are suffering we might get infected by their pain. It may not be convenient or comfortable. But only when you get close enough to catch their hurt will they be close enough to catch your love." - John Ortberg

Read this quote a couple years ago when I had started to read a book called Love Beyond Reason by John Ortberg. Didn't completely finish it and picked it back up this evening and was flipping through and in one of my highlighted sections I read this quote and remembered it and it moved me differently than it ever could have before.

I have now been infected by "their" pain. When the tears cease, I remember I would want it no other way.

I pray you're being infected by someone else's pain too. I believe when we start getting that close to a hurting world we are walking out the purposes which God intended us to fulfill.

Lord, help us dare to get that close...and help us to remember that Your Son touched the leper before He healed him. I am encouraged by the fact that He touched him while he was yet unclean. May we be willing to do the same.