When a physical body is hurting

Tonight, we were meeting some friends for dinner, and two of them came late. When they arrived, they looked extremely somber and very troubled.

They explained that they saw a homeless lady on their way over to the restaurant and was overcome by compassion. They stopped to talk her and used this chance to buy her dinner and genuinely get to know her. As they spoke to her, they got a chance to hear her story.

Although her story was heartbreaking, what got them down were the feelings they had of helplessness.

 How can we help her? Her troubles are so real, yet we do not know what we can do.

At the dinner table, there were a lot of decisions about how the latecomers should be feeling. It was brought up that the Lord is sovereign and therefore, the lady's situation is in the hands of the Lord and there is a reason why she is in the economic situation she is. Someone also brought up that although it is nice to help meet some one's physical needs, the 'bottom-line' is sharing the gospel. This individual said that even if we were to help this lady meet her physical needs, if she didn't know Jesus, it 'doesn't mean anything'.

There is no question that I believe the Lord is sovereign, that the Gospel is for everyone and also that Jesus is the only source of true hope, but will these assumptions help us relate to people like this women and help them get to know the love of Jesus? Will assuming that when they hear about Jesus they will come to an acceptance of their situation and want people to know Jesus?

I believe that when the physical body is hurting, that means the image of God is hurting. The Bible says that we have been created in the image of God, and that image is one with a whole and healthy body. Jesus had the compassion to heal people and I believe he still wants to heal us now. Although compassion doesn't mean that all people will be healed, I think that by helping and addressing the physical body, this can be used as a tool to show God's love and minister to people.

What do you think? Is helping people with their physical situations just a means to converse with a hurting person, or is it a vital step in helping an individual come to the Lord?