Last night, I attended a memorial service for the sister of a dear friend of mine. Her sister passed suddenly at the age of 48, and deep sadness hung in the air as people searched their hearts for an answer to this tragedy. My friend is married to her life-time partner who also suffers from terrible Chronic Pain, and we have become Prayer Warriors for each other. Mid-way through the service, I noticed this man was in the midst of a major attack of PAIN! He was struggling so as to not draw attention to himself, but PAIN WAS determined to be Heard. I felt so helpless, wanting to ease his suffering and knowing all I could do for him was PRAY. Later, I watched as he silently left the service.
PAIN does not take a vacation or give you a temporary PASS while you are going through tough emotional times. In plain words, PAIN will not leave. For those of you who suffer with Chronic Pain, we all struggle to get through the day and there are many days when we feel backed up against this wall of PAIN and can't fight back. But for me, I will continue taking the battle on because the thought of just giving up and allowing PAIN to rob me of any possible JOY is simply unacceptable!
I prayed hard for my friend's husband last night. As we left the service, he, too, stepped past his own battle and told me, "I will be praying for you tonight, so you just hang in there!"
Please know I pray for each of you, too. Hang in there and keep looking for JOY.
Dear Martha:
ReplyDeleteI believe you are a courageous woman with so much love in your heart. I have read a few of your posts, and am amazed by the depth of each one. Thank you for taking your time to share. I will email your blog site to others to read. I belong to a support group who also share our successes with each other in the battle of chronic pain. I love the story of the hammer. So inspiring to know I am not the only one that feels that way. I too sing that song from time to time. It is helpful. Again, thank you for sharing, I believe I found your blog from Guideposts, and memory and pain I couldn't find the link backwards, it got lost. I use the Power of Positive Thinking each day and was grateful to get a copy of it on-line free. I originally purchased his cd to listen to as reading at times can be a challenge. In a used book store I found his book "A Guide to Confident Living, Stay Alive All Your Life, and The Amazing Results of Positive Thinking (1996) published by Wings Books. Now I can read these at my leisure, a luxury of chronic pain to keep me going for the rest of my life. I hope you can see the irony in this last statement. Blessing and Joy to you. Monika
Monika-
DeleteThank you so much for these beautiful words you have sent my way and I am happy you found my blog site! For me, talking about the daily ups and downs of living with Chronic Pain is very helpful-while I am sitting at this computer and allowing everything to just flow out of me, my mind does drift away from the constant burning Pain I live with.
Once I started blogging, it was stunning to discover just how many people are walking this same tough journey each day and hearing their stories has lifted me up and yet also humbled me in many ways. Its pretty easy when you have been in this battle for so long to start thinking "Nobody hurts like I do" and here is where God opens my eyes-its a shock each time I see another person suffering and I take some steps backward, letting my heart be fully aware of the person and then I pray for them.
You mention the "irony" of your closing line and I hope my heart grabbed it-Chronic Pain tends to put us in our chairs to take a needed rest and at these moments, Joy Does come in being able to read words of hope, helpful suggestions, and other ideas that are there for the taking, and to help you walk this long journey, but after reading, you gain some very helpful tools!
Please stop in again! It was a joy to read your words.
God bless you and I pray HE keeps you wrapped in HIS loving embrace.
Martha Herden