Press In Your Pain

It has been a while since my last post but a lot has happened in and around me.  Some good, some not so good, but all came together to make me a stronger woman and for that, I am most thankful.  In the past few months I have learned how painful a press can be.  We hear that when life hands you lemons to make lemonade.  Well friends, that is easier said than done and I am sure there are a lot of you out there who agree with me.  When life hands you a lemon, most of us do not think of making lemonade rather, we think of the seeds that it contains and how sour it is to taste.  We think about how difficult it is to peel a lemon and the sting the smell can cause in your nose.  In other words we think about all of the things that make it difficult to get to that lemonade.  That my friends is process of pain.

When we are in pain and I am not talking about physical pain per say, we hurt, we ache, we are uncomfortable, and we want to be left alone to deal with that pain.  We want relief, yes, but in many ways cannot find the type of relief we need.  That pain that we are experiencing is real and it has an affect on our general well being.  It affects our minds and our outlook on life. I am talking about deep emotional and mental pain.  Pain that can cause us to act differently and respond differently.  This pain can cause us to feel different and to want total isolation from friends, family, from the world.  When we are in this type of pain, we do not want to do anything more than stay at that place and be in that pain.  To wallow in it and to give ourselves over to it.  We want to quit right there in that pain, and exist...no more.  Some of us medicate this pain by taking drugs or drinking alcohol.  Some by getting involved in dangerous relationships we know are bad for us, but it is medication. It provides us with a temporary fix that will last only as long as it should but when it is over, the pain we once felt, is still there.  Friends we cannot do that.

We cannot allow this type of pain to isolate us and to paralyze us, to stop positive progress.  We cannot allow this type of pain to alternate our way of thinking or doing.  We cannot allow this type of pain to give us suicidal thoughts and thoughts of harming others because we have been harmed. When we are in deep emotional pain nothing else matters except our own feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.  Nothing and no one else matters and it is at this point that we navigate towards those things that will bring us some sort of relief, though temporary, but relief that if we hurt, others should hurt too.  We have to be careful not to let our deep emotional and mental pain become our crutch. We cannot play the victim and become victimizing to others around us.  To our families and our friends and coworkers.  To our mates.  You see it is true, when you hurt, you hurt others.  This is all a mindset and there are ways to change that.  By using the other component of being in pain...THE PRESS!!!

I will in no way minimize that we are hurting and do not understand at times why me?  Why me Lord?  What have I done to deserve this.  Why me Lord?  What did I say to cause them to leave me?  Why me Lord?  Haven't I served you with my whole heart?  Haven't I given you praise and glory?  Haven't I given you credit for every good thing you have done?  Why me Lord and why not them!!??  Well my question is "why not you?"  Some of the biggest tests come for some of the strongest soldiers.  Fair, no doesn't seem to be but it is what it is and know God is in it all.  Sometimes it is nothing we have done or said to deserve the pain of a lost relationship or friendship or job.  But regardless of how we feel we must find the press from the pain.  We must move, and navigate ourselves forward in ministry.  We must press our way through the pain of losing a child or loved one.  We must press our way from losing that job we loved so much.  We will cry and there is a time we must grieve these losses, it is healthy to do so but in that pain, press.  Press forward with tears in your eyes and sorrow in your heart just be sure to press in your pain.

That press is where your purpose lies so cry, weep if you have to, take time to grieve but remember that when you get up from that pain to PRESS!  Until next time...

RR





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