We’ve all been hungry, thirsty, tempted, beaten down, and afraid. So has the Man of Sorrows. We’ve all grieved life’s betrayals, having loved people dearly only to have them forsake us. Jesus has been there, too. We’ve all been misunderstood

I have had a headache for a very long time. It started on January 11, 1980, when a meningitis-like illness attacked the nerves in my head, causing them to misfire painfully ever since. This has produced three and a half decades of continuous pain. When I last did the math, I clocked more than 13,000 consecutive days and 312,000 uninterrupted hours of pain. And my three-year battle with cancer and treatments has only made it worse.

Dr. Tuna

Not surprisingly, this has generated numerous doctor’s visits and an equal number of disappointments. My condition is very rare. While three out of one hundred might have it for a few months, almost none have it for thirty-five-plus years. And given the complete lack of any medical or natural remedy to cure or manage my pain, doctors have had to apologize time and again for their inability to help. No matter what they have prescribed, nothing has provided any relief.

While most doctors and therapists have been sympathetic, one of my headache specialists had all the bedside manner of a frozen tuna. Mouth open with a slight droop to the side. Eyes glazed. Demeanor as cold as ice. When I told Dr. Tuna that I had had a headache for decades, that I had seen dozens of doctors, and that I had been tested, scanned, MRI-ed, blood-worked, medicated, diet-adjusted, exercised, vitamin-supplemented, PT manipulated, acupunctured, and chiro-adjusted, all he did was suggest that I hadn’t tried hard enough. No lie. He scolded me for not finding an answer for something that has no answer—which even he had to admit eventually.

Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate that he tried to fix me (even if in vain). As a patient, that’s mostly what I cared about. But as a flesh-and-blood, chronically afflicted, emotionally spent human being with pulsating pain, I very much wished for something more. In my view, my good doctor would have been well-served by a stiff two-month headache to thaw him out a bit and make him more than a headache specialist. As a headache sufferer, he might have become a headache sympathizer, which, ironically, would have made him a better headache specialist. Or at least one could hope. 

Thank God For Christmas

There’s a Christmas lesson here, for Christmas is the ultimate expression of sympathy and care that’s ever been known to man. When Christmas first happened, Emmanuel arrived to live in our broken world with us. The incarnate God became a Man of Sorrows who was acquainted with our grief, who suffered human brokenness in his own body for decades on end right up to and through the Cross, and who has been sympathizing with and praying for us ever since (Isa. 53:3–6; Matt. 1:23; Heb. 5:27; 7:25). 

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