Feel your pain

PAIN: localized physical suffering associated with bodily disorder (as a disease or an injury); also : a basic bodily sensation induced by a noxious stimulus, received by naked nerve endings, characterized by physical discomfort and typically leading to evasive action


Pain: physical, mental, emotional.  Pain can have a good result as in the birth of a baby.  That pain is sometimes quickly forgotten when we see that little one we have been waiting for.  Pain can keep us from further hurting ourselves as in feeling a hot stove and knowing we need to keep our hand away....or get burned.

"I feel your pain" Bill Clinton

Pain is unique to the person.  What brings pain to one of us might not cause someone else to even think twice about it.  While we can empathize with someone else going through a painful situation, it is impossible for us to know exactly what that person feels.  Some people refer to themselves as having a high pain tolerance.

However, it seems we have become a people eager to dull or remove our pain....or find evasive action as listed in the dictionary.  There is a pill for everything that ails you.  We can get so busy running around and keeping busy that the only way we slow down is when something starts to hurt.  Pain can serve a greater purpose by letting us know there's something wrong.  We need to feel our own individual pains before we can reach out to others and help them through their pain.

We are promised a coming day though when there will be no more pain.  Until then, may our pain never be wasted.  May we learn and grow through it and bring it to the ultimate healer.

^{Revelation 21:4 (NIV)} He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Finally found a way to describe it.....pain...and joy

Jeremiah 31:13 (NIV) Then maidens will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

Let's face it, sometimes OK maybe a lot of times, emotions suck (for lack of a better term). Especially the down ones. It is SO easy to get overwhelmed and let emotions and feelings run over logic that things will more than likely be better tomorrow. Sometimes a nap is necessary. I knew that things were starting to crowd in on me again. I've ignored it. Worked around it. Found other things to do....but the feelings nagged on. A lot of the sadness I've been feeling isn't really even MY sadness. I've been surrounded by things affecting other people that I feel sad about.....and in a round about way guilty because deep down I think I feel relieved it's not me going through it.

This evening I finally found a nice seat on some tree roots while hubby was out with kids in the boat. It was a nice area with trees all around and no houses. Not a lot of noise other than the occasional boat buzzing by. I enjoyed looking at rocks/pebbles and the varying shapes and colors and how firm they are. I finally let myself breathe and feel. And I found a good way to describe it......

At Michigan Adventure in the kids area or at most water parks, there is the big bucket of water that eventually tips and everybody standing under it gets wet. It takes a little while to fill (those constant feelings filling the bucket), the bell sounds (overwhelming feeling), and the bucket tips (the tears fall).

I also came to the conclusion that maybe we experience pain so we appreciate joy. Through the pain, we can remind ourselves that God IS STILL God, even in the middle of the darkest times. I once heard that when we go through fire, God doesn't leave us there and go wait on the other side. He walks through the fire with us.

Many times our pain does have purpose. Pain and sadness can bring people together to support each other. We can't always see the purpose at the time. A lot of times the purpose becomes clearer in hindsight.

May we not try to avoid or ignore pain, but be aware of how we can lean on God through it. Get past the emotion and on to the fact that we are loved beyond our imagination.

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."