Necessary Pain

photo by YouVersion

I spent the last four days on my back. I generally have a pretty high tolerance to pain, but my first migraine has been awful. I couldn’t sit up without feeling like my head was going to explode, and staying upright for more than a few minutes made me nauseous. The reason this is coming out late today is because this is the first time since Thursday morning that I have been able to stay upright long enough to get on the computer. All that was bad enough, but riding in a vehicle was excruciating and led to vomiting and tears every time. Unfortunately, the only way to get to a doctor so that I could get better was in a moving vehicle. As painful as it was, I had to do it. Some of the exercises I was given were also painful, but they were necessary for healing.

 

Can There Be Peace In The Storm?

Why do the innocent suffer? What is the cause and purpose of natural disasters? What is the meaning of senseless, random tragedy? Who is in control? How can a good God allow such atrocities? How can we have peace when the world crumbles around us? ... 

These are questions that many have asked and few can answer. Unfortunately, we may never know the answers to some of these questions. Some tragedies cannot be explained short of an answer from God Himself, like why Hurricane Harvey, why did my babies die for no reason, why did my cousin’s wife die on her 37^th birthday with no cause leaving two children, etc? Even if we could find answers to them, they would provide little comfort to the broken. The truth may provide closure, but it does not heal the wound. The questions we can answer are the ones on which we need to focus: where is God in all this, and how do we find peace in the midst of chaos?

A Letter to the Hurting

I recently wrote this letter to my niece who is going through a really hard time, but the principles apply to many. I have shared portions of it in the hopes that it will help others as well.

Surrender to Suffering

Jeremiah 21:9 He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as booty. (NASB)

It seems counter-intuitive that surrender would end better than standing your ground, especially for Americans. But that is just what God told the Israelites when they were besieged by the Babylonians.

I read a story⃰ about a woman who learned (after a near perfect life) that her third child died in utero. Unable to bear the pain of suffering, she and her husband turned to their own sources of consolation. He became a workaholic, she an alcoholic. Those choices resulted in the destruction of everything they knew: family, marriage, work, relationships. Everything fell apart.

I think both of these stories have the same reasoning behind them.