What to Remember in the Middle of Unbearable Pain
I took a few days off from writing about insight, growth, and courage because I didn't know what to say. Back-to-back senseless shootings had me (and probably many others) paralyzed. I was depressed. Then one day I got into prayer time with God. In the middle of it, I had a revelation. I remembered something about living in the middle of unbearable pain.
Before lives were lost in Buffalo and Uvalde, my prayers had become particularly specific. I was praying for the demise of wicked leaders in high places. But as I prayed during my depression something became clear to me. As children of God and siblings of Christ, we are seeing a horrible amount of distraction. Distraction from what Jesus told us to do. In Matthew 28:20, he instructed his disciples to go out into the world and teach others to "observe" (do) everything he had "commanded" (told) the disciples. This was an assignment they then passed on to others.
So the disciples went out into a world that looked like this image. It was a world where there was unbearable pain because of how people treated each other.
In this world, the disciples had to:
Explain who Jesus was
Teach what he taught them about relationships and standards of living
Share about the life beyond their existing life
Some believed the disciples Others did not.
The children of those who believed did or did not. The children of those who did not believe did, or did not.
In the midst of unbearable pain, I understood that the world is the same world the disciples walked into. It's the same world where they needed to carry out their assignment to help others. I then asked God to:
Teach me more about him
Help me to develop a stronger personal relationship with him
Help me share more of him with others
Focus on him when the pain is unbearable
Through the unbearable pain, I"m reminded, that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Who he was yesterday applies to who he is today and who he is always regardless of what I see in society around me.
In the unbearable pain, I am left with this reminder: We walk by faith, not by sight. (Romans 5:17 NLT)
