6.12.23 - Psalm 69:1-3
It's hard to be with someone experiencing pain. We often want to run, minimize, redirect. How might you commit to being present with someone today?
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
A tsunami was the imagery I had as I sat before a counselor, readying to enter a program for opiate addiction.
The feelings of withdrawal wracked my body as shame ripped through me. My life had been swept away. I did not recognize the being that I embodied.
I almost left three times in that conversation. What kept me in the seat the first two times was that I had nowhere to go.
What kept me in the seat that final moment was the person sitting across from me. He had set his pen and paper to the side and he just sat with me.
He witnessed the pain that I was in and was with me in a place I had only ever been alone.
I often try to craft a correct response for someone in pain. The most compassion-filled answer I can offer is the fullness of presence.
We don't know what another person is experiencing unless we take the time to find out. Even then, we only scratch the surface.
What commitment can you make today to be present for someone?
-- Dax Franklin-Hicks