“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
    and if I refrain, how much of it leaves me?
Surely now God has worn me out;
    he has made desolate all my company.
And he has shriveled me up,
    which is a witness against me;
my leanness has risen up against me,
    and it testifies to my face.
He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
    he has gnashed his teeth at me;
    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.”
—Job 16:6-9

When your existential anchor is your enemy, no words comfort, yours or anyone else’s. And maybe that’s one of the points here: “comfort” is not what we need or seek or offer in these moments. Perhaps it’s simply presence.

For more on comfort as presence within suffering, read: The Suffering of The Holy Spirit.

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