Trajectory

Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 2 Corinthians 1:6 (nkjv)

When I became a widow at age forty-five a dear friend who had lost her husband three years earlier introduced me to a concept that became a guiding light for me. It is the notion of the trajectory. She told me that because of my husband’s death my life would take an entirely new trajectory. She said I would “begin to go places I would have never gone before, meet people I would have never known before, and understand things I would have never known before.” Nearly eight years later I would say my precious friend gave me an insight that has rung powerfully and consistently true in my experience.

Clearly my trajectory began to thrust me into pathways of people I would have never known outside of the providential hand of God in my suffering. Geographically my trajectory changed but more significantly the people around me changed. When you find yourself in places you may have never chosen for your life—perhaps an ICU waiting room or in a drug rehab facility visiting your son—think “trajectory.”

Who are the people we are supposed to touch on this perhaps painful, unwanted journey? Why are you sitting next to another chemotherapy patient? Clearly God allowed your pathways to cross. It is a staggering thought to grasp that you would have never encountered this person outside of the occurrence of pain in your life. It is clearly a God-ordained encounter. The next question is what you will do on this God-ordained trajectory. This is a critical juncture for any suffering heart. Embracing this trajectory and the people we find on it may be perhaps the most significant crossroad in healing. Knowing and receiving God’s comfort comes with a price. The price is pouring that comfort out on others. It is a calling, an obligation, a privilege, and a divine purpose in suffering.

Embrace your trajectory, my friend, even if it is bitter or unwanted. On that pathway you will encounter fellow strugglers who are waiting for you to pass their way. Lift your head and look for them. Paul reminded us that we were comforted for them, and perhaps even their salvation is at stake.

Father, help me comfort others with the comfort I have received in Christ. Amen.