Topic: Ministry of Presence | Key Scripture: John 11:35 — “Jesus wept.”
John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the Bible. Two words. And yet it may be one of the most theologically significant moments in all of Scripture.
Jesus stood at the tomb of Lazarus. He knew what was about to happen. He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He had the power to do it and the intention to do it. And yet — He wept.
He did not immediately fix the situation. He did not bypass the grief of those around Him. He did not offer a theological explanation for why death exists or remind everyone that Lazarus would soon be walking out of the tomb. He stood in the grief of the people He loved and He wept with them.
This is the ministry of presence. And Jesus modeled it before He performed the miracle.
There is a deeply human instinct, when someone is in pain, to want to fix it. To offer solutions, silver linings, and scripture verses. To say something that will make the pain smaller or the path forward clearer. This instinct comes from a good place — from care, from discomfort with suffering, from a genuine desire to help.
But it often communicates something unintended: that the pain is a problem to be solved rather than an experience to be witnessed. That the grieving or struggling person needs to move through what they’re feeling more quickly so that everyone can feel better. That their pain is, in some quiet way, too much.
The ministry of presence asks something harder and simpler at the same time. It asks a person to stay. To resist the urge to fix. To sit in the discomfort of another person’s suffering without trying to resolve it. To communicate through presence alone: I am not going anywhere. You are not too much. You do not have to perform okay for me.
This kind of presence is rare. And its absence — the experience of going through hard things without anyone truly staying — leaves a particular kind of wound. The wound of feeling unseen. Of feeling like a burden. Of learning, slowly, to carry things alone because no one has proven they will stay.
BRKN Soul Care was built around this conviction: that presence is not a lesser form of help. It is often the most profound form of help available. Before answers, before advice, before direction — a person needs to know they are not alone. They need someone to pull up a chair and stay.
That is what this ministry offers. Not all the answers. Not a quick fix. Just a willing, unhurried, compassionate presence — for as long as it takes.
If this resonates with where you are today, BRKN Soul Care is here. Book a free Introductory Conversation at brknsoulcare.org and take the first step. You don’t have to carry this alone.