PAIN. It's not a fun word to write or read--but it's even less enjoyable to experience personally. But even though we tend to avoid pain as much as we can, the truth is all of us face it at one time or another. It may be emotional pain, physical pain... maybe even the pain of feeling far away from God. In those moments we want relief. In those moments we want the pain to disappear. In those times, we typically long for the circumstances of life we knew just moments before the pain started.
Recently, my oldest brother, Jeff, lost his vision in his right eye. He was driving down the road and all of a sudden he could not see. WOW! I can hardly imagine that experience--the terror that must have stricken his heart/mind in those moments. He had emergency surgery (and has had another surgery since then), but as of right now his vision is still very compromised. [If you're reading this, may I humbly implore you to pray for Jeff's healing--that his sight might be restored completely. THANK YOU!] How does one deal with an experience like that? How should we respond to the pain in our lives?
One of the resources I use for my own personal devotions is a magazine called Tabletalk (produced by Ligonier Ministries), and in this month's edition they have printed an interview with one of my favorite persons: Joni Eareckson Tada. If you don't know her story, type her name into Google and discover an amazing woman of God. Some 44 years ago (at age 17), Joni dove into the Chesapeake Bay (without checking the depth of the water) and struck her head against something hard. Her neck snapped--and on that day Joni became a quadriplegic. As a child, I can remember my parents taking me to see her life's story at the movie theater (Joni the Movie), and ever since that time Joni's life has both humbled me and amazed me.
The interviewer asked Joni this question, "Your most recent book is A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God's Sovereignty. Can you tell us why you wrote the book?" Her reply was: "For more than ten years I have dealt with chronic pain (very unusual for a quadriplegic like me). Piled on top of my quadriplegia, at times it seemed too much to bear. So I went back and reexamined my original views on divine healing to see what more I could learn. What I discovered was that God still reserves the right to heal or not to heal as He sees fit. And rather than try to frantically escape the pain, I relearned the timeless lesson of allowing my suffering to push me deeper into the arms of Jesus. I like to think of my pain as a sheepdog that keeps snapping at my heels to drive me down the road to Calvary, where, otherwise, I would not be naturally inclined to go."
Trust me, if you've never listened to Joni speak or if you have never read anything she has written, she really has learned a lot from her experiences with pain and suffering... but the bottom line is that she chose to allow her pain to drive her towards Christ rather than away from Him.
This has become my prayer for myself, my brother, and others who are experiencing great pain in their lives. Yes, I do pray for God to mercifully remove the pain--but I trust God's wisdom, love, and goodness enough (after 20 years of walking with Him) to know that if He chooses to allow the pain to remain, His desire is for that pain to drive His children toward Him, not away from Him.
Do you remember when you were a child and you would fall and scrape your knee? What was your initial inclination? You wanted your Daddy to come, scoop you up into his arms and hold you close, right? Well, your heavenly Father wants you to have the same response in the midst of your adult (REAL) pain. Run to your Father. Let Him love you, hold you, and comfort you. The pain might not go away immediately... but the peace you will experience in your Father's arms will be something you can't find anywhere else in the world. Joni has dealt with her pain for 44 years, and yet, God's grace and peace have been sufficient to satisfy her soul (even in the midst of great pain and suffering). My prayer is that God's grace and peace will be enough for you too--trust in Him today and always.
