Community of Suffering

I am sitting here here pondering some thoughts and the one thought I was thinking was about suffering. There are so many verses  in the bible that speak about  the many people in the bible who suffered.<p> Sometimes I think though, we show sympathy to those who suffer, but only to a point.  We do not want them to be spoiled by attention, they talk too much about it,  they are not the most fun people to be around,  etc. etc. We could go on  and on, yet it says in Isaiah 53, Jesus was a "man of sorrows" and "He had no form nor comliness  that when we should see them, there was no beauty that we should desire Him."  It says Jesus  was not someone we would want to be with because He did not look nice  and was sorrowful, not just a happy go lucky  kind of person. <p> I think though there is a community of suffering among all of us.  For women, it is  the sorrow of birth, we all feel a  sense of community  with other women who have suffered  through this experience.  What about  the little sufferings many of us feel  every month? We all  can feel sympathy  for each other then! <p>
So, why are we cold to long term suffering?  At first  we want to help, we are sorry, but then after a bit, we sort of tire of it. We easily forget about what they are going through and when we hear them ask for prayer again, we  sort of shrug our shoulders  and roll our eyes at their  same request Again!! <p> Is this right?  Can you think of a way that you have ignored someones suffering?  Do you get tired of hearing how so and so  went through so much and  that is why they have trouble?  What do you think  you can do to reach out to someone who is suffering?   <p>   Think of the simple things you can do to show you  care, it does not have to be  something big.  It can be something as simple as inviting someone over to your house.<p> On a different subject, but sort of the same,  I was reading about Paul and his persecution of the christians. It was awful what he did to them? I suddenly had the thought for the first time that maybe perhaps some of the christians he beat up had to work with and listen to him preach later.   Have you ever thought about that?