Passage
“God… comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” — 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Reflection
There’s an order in this passage that’s easy to miss: comfort first, then the ability to comfort others. Not the other way around. And yet many women reverse that order without realizing it: they become experts at holding others up, at being the group’s strong shoulder, while they keep postponing indefinitely the moment of receiving the same comfort they give out.
In Luke 10, Martha handles all the preparations while Mary simply sits at Jesus’s feet to listen. Jesus’s response doesn’t attack Martha’s service. It targets the anxiety behind it: the belief that if she stops holding everything up, it will all fall apart, and that sitting down to receive is a luxury she can’t afford.
Laying down the armor doesn’t return you to the vulnerability of before you knew how to protect yourself. It returns the possibility that someone, this time, stays, and that the comfort you give out so freely also reaches you first.
Prayer
Lord, I’m good at comforting others and bad at letting myself be comforted. Help me receive first what you offer, before rushing off to hold everyone else up. Teach me, like you taught Martha, that sitting down to receive is also the good part. Amen.