I Know How You Feel

07/02/11 | Posted by HughB

Do those words annoy you as much as they do me? Recently there seems to have been a spate of interviews and sound-bites in which Members of Parliament have asserted that they know what it is like for us. We’re all going through this recession together so they understand what it is like for everyone, whatever their circumstances.

 Argh!

However, as a father of a seven year old child who is on the Autistic Spectrum (perhaps more on that subject in a later blog), the comments that particularly frustrate me are the claims that because an MP has or had a child with special needs he or she understands what it is like for other parents of a child with a disability. Even ignoring the facts that ‘disabled’ is such a wide category, provision varies considerably from one area to another and some people are better off financially to cope with the additional demands they face, the truth is that each one of us perceives and responds to the challenges of life differently. I am an individual and no one knows what it feels like for me, not even my wife who cares for the same boy.

The thing that strikes me is that the Christian faith states that, in Christ, God walked this earth. He went through the same sort of experiences, feelings and emotions that you and I go through. He felt hungry, upset, angry, let down, betrayed, deserted and misrepresented like we sometimes do. Yet, while Psalm 139 says that God knows our thoughts, our actions and our words even before we do, the Bible never suggests that he knows how we feel.

Instead he leaves that for us to share with him.
How are you feeling today?

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