The God of All Comfort

I've got to confess. I told a lie today. In fact, I told the same lie several times. Let me explain.
At this moment, my Dad is lying in critical condition in St. Vincent's Hospital in Little Rock. A very large blood clot was removed from his brain last week and for ten days now he has been in that hospital unresponsive with too many tubes running into his body to believe. My Mother is worn out from spending most of those nights in an all too uncomfortable recliner next to him as she waits for any sign of recognition from eyes that have only opened a few times and only then for a couple of fleeting moments.
I'm tired, and I haven't been there nearly as long as she but I have come home for a night or two in my own bed. I've had an "emotional moment" a time or two as I feel helpless to help the one who has helped me on myriad occassions.
Oh yeah...the lies. Earlier today I felt the need to get away for a while to decompress, as it were. Robin and I found our way to a nearby mall just to walk, see happy faces for a change, and try to regroup my thought process. And every clerk in every store we entered approached with the same question. "How are you doing today?" they cheerfully asked. And I answered with the typical response. "Oh, I'm fine," I would answer. I lied. Time after time.
The raw-gut truth is I felt, rather, feel, like road kill. Like I've been run over repeatedly in the highway of life. And I think some put it in reverse and ran over me again.
As a pastor, I have many times counseled and consoled others who have gone through what I'm going through and even worse. Now I'm on that side of the confessional window. Okay, I'm not Catholic but a better metaphor escapes me right now.
Paul in II Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."
As much compassion and comfort that I've tried to give others, I can see it all from a different perspective now. I've been blessed to have my parents for so many years. The Lord yearns to comfort us. Now, no matter what happens in my situation, I pray I can be of greater comfort to those who need a shoulder to cry on.