What lies behind your walls?
17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. 18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit. 19 One who is righteous has many adversities, but the Lord rescues him from them all (Ps. 34:17–19).
When my kids are hurt, they instinctively cover the wounded area. When I try to see and treat the injury, I’m often met with resistance and crying. It takes a measure of trust for them to believe there is healing past the pain of feeling.
When we are hurt, we have the same instinct to cover up our pain. We don’t like the fact that healing takes time. Instant relief is much preferred. Open wounds feel vulnerable, so we erect walls when something or someone gets too close. Our walls go up with the intent to keep our wounds from hurting more. So, when things get too personal, we pull back. If it’s too real, we retreat. And when something stirs in us, we avoid it until the discomfort settles.
The soil of our hearts can be hardened by protective walls. The problem with walls is they aren’t selective. As long as we don’t feel, we assume we’re fine. But as our hearts harden, so does our ability to feel on both sides of the emotional spectrum.
In her book, From Faking It to Finding Grace, my friend Connie writes: “We don’t know how to interpret pain… we process it to mean that perhaps if God would allow this, He must not be trustworthy.”
If the rampant presence of evil, pain and suffering in this life doesn’t cause you to stop believing in a loving God, it may tempt you to stop trusting Him. After all, how can we trust a God who allows us to experience deep pain?
Imagine my surprise when a friend said to me, “I loved being in labour.” I’ve heard people say they loved being pregnant, or love being a mom, but never ever have I heard a person say they loved the excruciating pain of labour. She must have noticed my jaw on the floor because she shrugged and said, “I don’t know… when you know there is new life on the other side of all that pain, and you know it’s for a reason, you know it’s worth it.”
This everyday life—the one with all kinds of pain, brokenness and disappointment, is the birth canal to another life. The moment we entrust our lives to Jesus and are spiritually born again, He plants a seed of new life within us. We’re going home to heaven where there will be no more pain, fears or tears. But don’t confuse this life with the next. We have glimpses of glory, but in this life, we labour. On the painful road home marked with suffering, we are called to cling to faith that will take us right through.
Watching my superman of a dad, who never got sick or hurt, physically waste away with ALS was one of the most painful seasons of my life. I intuitively knew that choosing not to trust God would not change what I was going through, but it would change how I went through it.
How do we prevent our hearts from hardening in the midst of pain? Choosing to trust Jesus enough to come to Him instead of covering. We cannot experience the presence of a sympathetic Saviour who weeps with us in our pain, is deeply grieved and sorrowful over the death sin causes, and who is sympathetic in every way without coming to Him.
Let pain prompt us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the One who knows pain because He paid for all of it. Every lack can be an invitation to look to Him with our tear-filled eyes. Instead of a lecture to stop crying because one day it’ll all be okay, perhaps we’ll be met with the kind, sympathetic, tear-filled eyes that understand life was not meant to be this way.
Let pain remind you that this world is not our home. The reason it feels like it’s not supposed to be this way is because it wasn’t.
We can offer praise from the pit of pain, trusting His character when His actions feel confusing. He never wastes our pain but promises eternal glory that is not worth comparing to our present suffering.
Invite the Truth Himself into your pain. He wants to heal and waits for you to ask.
We are free to feel when we trust Him to heal.
*Excerpt taken from The Flourishing Life— Discovering the transforming power of trusting God with your weaknesses, ways and wants. Available for preorder Friday, November 29, 2019. Study The Flourishing Life with a friend or your small group in January. Subscribe at everydaytruth.ca to stay tuned for more details!
