True You: Finding Beauty In AuthenticitySample

Pain

Is a life without pain actually living? This is a hard question to ask. 

Take breathing, for example. As we breathe, we inhale and exhale. We can’t do one without the other; they work hand in hand to keep our hearts beating. Sleeping and waking are also things we experience in partnership. This is true of joy and sadness too. 

I love the verses at the beginning of Ecclesiastes 3. Despite the busy rush of our lives, there is time for everything. Specific moments are set aside for us to experience silence and communication, gathering and scattering, mourning and dancing, weeping and laughing. These serve as a reminder that everything in life has a flow. If we rest in the push and pull of all things, and if we are patient enough to hear it, we can find harmony. Rest in these words today, friends. 

When dealing with pain, be it yours or somebody else’s, it is comforting to hear in these verses the promise that the season of hurt you are in will give way to one of celebration. Take a moment and find a quiet place to calm your thoughts and emotions. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. With every breath acknowledge the pain you are experiencing. Even go so far as to welcome the pain and welcome God into the experience. With every exhale, let go and let God. Trust the process that you are going through. God is in this with us—never leaving us but carrying us through it all. 

This exercise of consciously resting in the push and pull of life gives us the opportunity to feel, which is to be fully human. It also invites God into the experience. Answers often come through stillness. Express gratitude for God’s peace, love, and healing presence.