Sorrow and Love: Finding God’s Presence in Our Pain

About once a decade, Easter or Resurrection Sunday falls on my birthday. This year is one of those times, and last month brought me closer to Jesus’ wounded side through some painful experiences. I’ll share just one of them here for now. What began as a beautiful ski trip to Beech Mountain ended in the emergency room. On day two, I crashed on the slopes and dislocated my shoulder. The pain was brutal.

Although I hope you’ve never dislocated your shoulder, you more than likely have your own pain you could share. Pain takes many forms whether physical or emotional, and the two often interconnect.

What I learned from last month is that pain and God’s love are paradoxically connected. In our pain, we have the choice to run away from God or run into His loving embrace and experience His love for us on a deeper level. Today, I share my story in the hopes that you also will choose to run to God in your pain. Here’s how I did.

Claim God’s Perfect Promises

Pop! As I catapulted off balance, my right shoulder thudded against the hard snow, and an unmistakable pop registered in my brain. Dislocation? Break? I didn’t know. All I could do was process the reality that I had crashed, I was hurt, and I needed help.

As my husband James and a ski patrolman came alongside me to help me onto a sled and gather my gear, the initial adrenaline rush wore off and the pain registered. During our descent, I clung to the strap on the sled, and tears fell unbidden from my eyes.

I was scared. Had I broken my arm? How bad was it? How long would I take to heal? These fears swarmed my mind, but so did verses I had memorized.

• Psalm 91, including verse 11: “For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways” (NKJV).

• Psalm 23 and the promise, “The Lord is my shepherd” (NKJV).

• “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you” (Psalm 56:3 NKJV).

These verses replayed again and again in my memory. What a comfort God’s Word can be in out-of-control situations!

Offer Imperfect Praise

In this crisis, my praise was pretty superficial, ranging from, “Thank you that I’m not dead” to “Thank you that I don’t have a head injury” to “Thank you that the hospital is only 10 minutes away.”

But I believe that God hears even imperfect praise. God’s Word says that “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me” (Psalm 50:23a NKJV). Praise is praise, and even in pain, we can thank Him as best as we can.

I don’t pretend to understand how praise works, but I truly think it gets God’s attention, first because it’s pleasing to Him, and secondly, because we’re tearing our attention off ourselves and remembering Who is really in control.

Hebrews 13:15 says that we believers ought to “continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God” (NKJV). The adverb “continually” makes clear that our praise should be ongoing, through the good and through the bad. I think the bad times are what makes our praise a sacrifice, for sacrifice, by definition, involves a giving up of ourselves or our desires.

I’m not saying my praise comes out on pitch or pretty during pain. Far from it. But by God’s grace, I still offer it.

Invite God’s Perfect Peace

The way to peace is not pretending that life’s okay. Peace comes from being raw and real with God and finding Him draw us to His side, the same one that was pierced for us (John 19:34).

When we experience pain, we tend to question why. Questioning is a normal, even healthy, response, because it sends us searching for answers and hopefully running to God and His Word.

I didn’t find the reason for my own pain, but I did find the ultimate answer to it. Jesus, the “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3), knows and understands our hurts more than anyone else can. He shares in them with us. And He has already provided the means for our ultimate healing.

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5 NKJV).

I’m grateful my dislocated shoulder is on the mend. I realize some of our pains have no chance to heal. Either way, we can know our Healer, the one who will one day wipe all tears away from our eyes (Isaiah 25:8), who will exchange our earthly bodies for a glorious one (I Corinthians 15).

He meets with us in our hurt and shares in our suffering. He is truly a good Father.

The question isn’t whether pain and suffering will come, but how we will respond when they do. I hope you’ll join me in running to Jesus.

~ Kristen

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