Pain like you never knew

Photo by Brunel Johnson on Unsplash

I have heard several dozen full accounts of significant pain that people have borne, and these people are the ones, not famous pastors or personalities or politicians, who are my heroes; who inspire my faith when I endure my pain.

As the experience of love is multiplied to the point where it is unfathomable, so too it is true that experiences of pain are equally profound and unplumbed.

It isn’t until you’ve experienced pain that you never thought was possible that you begin to believe that the experience of God in life is much, much deeper and more inscrutable than you ever thought possible.

When you go deep into this experience, which takes great fortitude, you can discover something quite paradoxical. Experiences of unsounded pain do not discount God’s care. All the more, through your dark night of the soul, you are given experiences of life that promote the need to embark on and continue the search. Pain is the invitation to search. And more of God is in the search.

All that matters is the search; for ways to unravel the mystery, which ultimately draws your faith deeper, wider, longer, intensifying your walk with God. In the end you’re not crushed to discover that the mysteries of God, like the size of the universe, are also fathomless.

Searchers are finders in this life if they do not give up. But searchers of the true gold of God do not find what they expect to find. They discover something altogether more mysterious.

~

We find words of comfort in the Bible from those who’ve gone before us. Like the apostle Paul when he spoke of that thorn in his flesh — a messenger of Satan, no less. He begged the Lord three times to remove it from him. Do you remember what God said to him? God did not say, “Here Paul, I heal you in the name of Jesus.” God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

In healing Paul, much glory would have gone to God. But instead, Paul wasn’t the benefactor of miraculous healing in the traditional sense of the concept. God gave Paul the opportunity to grow deeper in his understanding of God’s power through his life through weakness. God used it to keep Paul from becoming conceited.

There are benefits to the life that bears more pain than one life can readily contend with. Unfortunately, many of these benefits others enjoy. The person who experiences deep, chronic pain, within the crucible of faith, is blessed with a kind of humility no one without these experiences can touch. Such a person is inherently honest and a palpably credible witness of the works of God — in their flesh. This kind of person is an inherently safe person, and quite frankly we need more of these kinds in ministry.

There is such a thing as a pain like you never knew. For anyone reading this who may doubt the integrity of this information, be careful what you pray for, for it is within the field of all reality that you too may be called upon to bear a pain like you never knew.

Here is a prayer for those who bear insurmountable pain every day:

Lord God,

You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the creator God.

We who love You, love You with all our hearts, but never as much as You love us with all of Yours.

My prayer today and all days, for those who are in great pain, for the afflicted, for those who know chronically acute pain, that You would bless them within their emotionality, that they would know that they’re dearly beloved of You, that they are good and faithful servants of God Most High, and you bid them a ‘well done’ for all they endure, especially when they are taken to the end of their strength, and begin to face the beginning of Yours, which is nothing like worldly strength that we think makes us happy and content. Give them more of Your portion, more of Your grace, and more of a power that the world cannot give. Give to them more of what they can give away by bearing their pain as well as they can. And help them when they experience an unfair guilt or shame for times when they don’t measure up to their own and others’ standards. Help them be gentle with themselves, as You are gentle with them.

I pray this in the name of Jesus, who was acquainted with pain beyond human comprehension.

Amen.