I'm not ready to comfort someone

I wrote this weeks before this blog was ready.  I post it now as an example of how it feels to be  unprepared to comfort a friend in need.

I wasn't ready.  Just this morning I received news that the son of an acquaintance suddenly died.  I know no details.  My heart is heavy as I go about my normal morning routine, for I know these parents are not doing the same.  Their day has exploded by trauma and their lives will never be the same.  My stomach knots and turns sour at the thought of their agony and grief.  I wished so badly that I had my blog site up and running so I could offer it as a gateway to walk the grief path alongside me, a fellow traveler.  BUT I WASN'T READY YET.You might be a friend of someone in the hell of grief and you don’t feel ready to help them either.  Death does not come conveniently.   As friends to those who mourn, we might be tempted to react with despair and abandon any effort to reach out to others in pain.  Sometimes we find the courage to move past the barricade of unpreparedness and we make the effort to do what we can for the grieving.  We step up to the plate and feel with them.  And this is what I need to remind myself, I need to come alongside my friends and feel their pain with them.