Lifting up a Pain Partner!

When a person suffers daily with Chronic Pain, you begin to think, "nobody feels like I do" and yet your mind tells you there are lots of unknown people who suffer with Pain- they might be living next door to us, or sitting beside us in church-we never know the Path others have to walk, and its pretty hard to get our minds away from our own miserable Pain Journey to think about others suffering.

I have a very dear friend whose husband suffers terribly with Chronic Pain-he has had numerous accidents, hip replacements, just too many times of his body getting roughed up and it has taken a huge toll on him.  We began our friendship by Praying for each other.  Each time I spoke with his wife, I would ask how he was doing and one day, I asked if He minded speaking with me on the phone.  We shared our "Pain Misery" with each other and I told him that from now on, He would be in my prayers every single day-and in turn, He promised to do the same for me.

We have stuck to our promise-and its almost like we can "sense" when one of us is really having a rough week. Sometimes I think we should both start doing the Weather Reports because when his Pain starts rising, he will comment "somebody is catching Hell somewhere tonight!"  His meaning is simple, there is bad weather breaking out as His body is throbbing-letting him know, Bad Weather is coming this way!

His wife will let him know when I am on the bad side of Pain and again, as my day drags on, there will come a second when My Pain seems to ease a bit-and my heart tells me "my good friend just prayed for me!" We both know there is no magical cure for our wounded body parts, nerves damaged with wicked scar tissue choking the nerve so badly, it makes us both want to just Scream and Beg for it to stop.  Yet our inner strength keeps going-as we both lean hard on our faith.

I spoke with him yesterday, asking how he was doing-but already knowing what the answer would be: He let me know things were not terrible, but definitely not great!  We talked briefly about the things we can do to stay occupied, trying so hard to keep our minds away from the Pain. It was a "Hang in there Buddy" Conversation and yet it ended in the most beautiful way; I assured him that he is always in my nightly Prayers and he assured me, Prayers are sent up to God by him each day-so that I can keep finding the courage to battle back against Pain.

We have a beautiful quiet "Spiritual Sharing" that happens each day and I know God hears both of us praying, doing our best to "Lift each other Up from the Pain Pit!" Its a Gift that can't be measured-or truly explained-but we both know God brought us together and we lean on each other in those rough times, always looking UP to God for help.

Today I pushed myself to get out of the house and go for a ride with my husband, knowing it was not going to be easy, but I found my way through it and something tells me, the prayers of my dear friend-they were the extra "HELP" I needed to get through the day.

I pray for all who suffer their own battle with Pain-just know-you are not alone!  Somebody is "Lifting" you up and hoping your day will get better.

God bless you. Martha