These wonderful words come to us from the Prophet Ezekiel when they were in captivity and his congregation was a company of exiles, captives, beaten and broken people. I don’t think any preacher ever had such a group of folks in his congregation like this man. They had been defeated, humiliated, taken prisoner and carried away to a foreign land to be dealt with as slaves.

The prophet tells us the secret of his work among the hurting and defeated: I SAT WHERE THEY SAT and this helped me to understand their heartaches and problems. Rather than preaching to them, I TASTED THEIR TRAGEDIES and this allowed me to become more compassionate and affective.

How long has it been since any of us put ourselves into the other person’s pain, their pressure, failures or hurts? This would surely birth in all of us much greater kindness, concern and tolerance if we would enter into the situation from their viewpoint. I think we are often out of sympathy with the sick because we are well, the poor because we have enough, the young because we have grown a little older.

How does the prisoner look at life? The social outcast? The young girl who chose poorly? The untrained who fights for a job? The minority who must deal with bias and resistance? The sinful, because we have experienced mercy and grace? The lonely, because we have many friends.

Jesus mixed among all sorts and entered into their pains and problems. Shall His saved friends and family keep safe distance and never try to sit where they now must sit?

Let us make some changes and I am sure we can be more like our Lord Jesus who was touched with people’s problems.

— Copyright 2004 Rev. J.W. Arnold