By now all of us know of the massive devastation being faced by the people of Joplin, MO, and its surrounding communities. Being from the SW Missouri area, I have close ties to Joplin, with family members and several friends that live in the ravaged town. I am blessed to say that all of my loved ones are safe and accounted for. Some lost homes; some know people who lost lives…we all have a certain degree of grief we’re going through.

In the few short but seemingly long days since the tragedy, numerous other communities across our nation are encountering the same horrors as tornadoes are ripping across their backyards. I have noticed myself (in error) starting to compare the pain and loss others are dealing with as lesser and therefore almost trivial in relation to the Joplin area. Don’t get me wrong – the scale of the Joplin tornado’s destruction is horrific, huge and almost incomprehensible, but the truth remains that loss is loss and pain is pain. Many times we all seem to think that our pain is the worst probably because we’re the ones experiencing it. Whether someone lost a spouse or child or a parent or a friend or a home to an EF2 or an EF5 tornado probably doesn’t matter much to them. What matters is that they need help, compassion and healing.

The same is true in every area of our lives. The heartache one experiences is never exactly the same as the trial another faces, because no two people and their situations & circumstances are ever perfectly duplicated. We all have unique challenges to face and obstacles to overcome. Comparing pain on a 1-10 scale is useless, though we subconsciously do it. The truth is that just because someone’s trial is different doesn’t mean their pain is any less real and overwhelming to them. So who suffered more?

The answer is Jesus. The Word of God says He has borne all our sorrows and our grief. The pain and suffering He endured in His flesh makes ours bearable because we now have HOPE. The certainty of His resurrection from death and destruction brings us the hope of our own resurrection and restoration – spiritually and naturally. In reality, the grand scope of the “bigger” disasters is a greater opportunity for us to bind together and extend the comfort that we ourselves have been comforted with. Because He lives, we too can arise past the pain, past the destruction, even past the death we’ve seen, and overcome the most dire of circumstances.

Those of us who are looking in on this or any other crisis (big or small) from the outside can reach in to those hurting on the inside and be the arms of Jesus extended in mercy and healing. We help others overcome because we have the One who overcame all living in and through us. The following sums it up the best I’ve heard so far. It’s a facebook status posted by Daniel Wermuth, pastor of Joplin Family Worship Center…

Today we saw Jesus...He was making hamburgers and hotdogs, giving water, cooking dinner, setting up tables, He sorted clothes and prepared care packages, He was moving boxes, emptying trash, searching thru debris, He has a chain saw and truck, He prayed with people and made phone calls, He delivered truck loads of supplies, drives a forklift...we saw Jesus all day long and He loves people...alot!