Paul opens his most personal letter with a title for God you will lean on someday if you have not already: the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.

Then he says why we receive comfort at all: so we can hand it to the next sufferer. Pain, in God's economy, is never a dead end. It is inventory.

Eliphaz had to fabricate sins to keep his system running, which tells you everything about systems. Paul went the other way: he showed his wounds. We despaired of life itself. No spin, no lesson-jumping, just the truth that the crushing taught him to rely on the God who raises the dead.

That is why his comfort is transferable and Eliphaz's never was. Comfort flows through people honest about where they needed it. Whatever trouble God has carried you through, someone downstream is waiting for the version of comfort only you can hand them. Your scars have a job.