Carrying Each Other's Burdens

Somehow, I tend to be the person people go to to vent. I love that. I love that people trust me. I want people to feel like I'm a safe place to run to. I get all kinds of stories: happy, sad, dorky, painful, pointless, long, weird, etc. The list goes on. I never dislike listening to someone. Often times I tend to feel like all I can do is listen and feel short on what to say. The biggest place I feel that is when I get a phone call or talk to someone that is hurting. I've gotten quite a few of those since school started and I have to say that it hurts so much to hear the people I love in pain. Whether it be that they are crying, angry, annoyed, speechless, or just voicing their thoughts, I never like hearing that. I want them to come to me and I want them to talk about it, however, I usually feel their pain and it hurts. The Bible talks about sharing our burdens(Galations 6:2) and I firmly believe in the importance of that. Carrying one's burden is a lot of work at times though. I find after the conversation that I feel their pain and it's almost as if it were my pain now too. I find myself praying a lot more for them, and thinking a lot more about them. I've known this but for some reason getting phone calls from my fellow freshman at school's far away is different. Hearing one of my best friends call from hundreds of miles away while choking back tears, is incredibly painful. I can't be there in person for her and that makes things hard. I want so bad to just give her a hug....but that's the very thing I can't do. Distance....a new concept for me. Burdens.....an old concept, re-born into new light.