from Chapter 13

“What Do Suffering People Need from Me?”

There is no magic cure for a person in pain. Mainly, such a person needs love, for love instinctively detects what is needed…. In fact, the answer to the question, “How do I help those who hurt?” is exactly the same as the answer to the question, “How do I love?” If you asked me for a Bible passage to teach you how to help suffering people, I would point you to 1 Corinthians 13 and its eloquent depiction of love. That is what a suffering person needs: love, and not knowledge and wisdom. As is so often his pattern, God uses very ordinary people to bring about healing.

Yancey, Philip. Where Is God When It Hurts? (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1990), 187.