pain

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

There is pain in life. There is no way around it. This isn’t the way it was meant to be. There was no pain in the Garden.

All I need to do is look around…I am not living in the Garden any longer and so I have pain in my life. Thinking I can avoid pain is not choosing to live in reality.

I think what I do with the pain I encounter in life is the key. I am trying to look at pain through a different lens. Instead of asking “Why?” or even “What is God trying to teach me through this?”, I am trying to ask the question “Where can I see Jesus in this pain? How is He holding me in the midst of it?” I don’t just want to endure it…to get through it so I can learn the lesson on the other side. I want to be present during it, to be aware, to look at God’s hand in it.

Are you in the midst of a painful time? Are you struggling with why something painful happened in the past or why something painful is occurring right now? If so, I invite you to sit with God and ask Him to reveal Himself in the middle of it all…how is He carrying you even though you may not be able to sense Him? Consider journaling about those questions and resting in God as He slowly reveals the answers.

Grace and peace,
Deb