Embracing

We are sometimes told, “Deal with it!” or “Work it through!” or even, “Just get over it!”  There is some truth in each statement, but in facing the harsh realities of life, the statements themselves can seem harsh.  Even as believers, we are taught the sufficiency of God to meet every need, and we are chastised openly or overtly for grief that is still raw weeks or months after a loss, for the haunting presence of memories that inhibit relationships, for the sting of deception or gossip that stole from us, for the nagging doubts or fears that are rooted in wrong teaching or trauma, for the pull of temptation that actively pursues us years after we have set aside the wrong behavior.  These are our vulnerabilities and we come by them very naturally.  So, how do we move on and bring a greater sense of stability spiritually and emotionally?  There are no “quick fixes.”  There are no “spiritual bandaids” to apply.  Neither embraces the pain that is there.  Both are superficial and apply only a temporary, if any, relief.  The pain must be embraced.  If that doesn’t sound very spiritual, then we need to read the words of the psalmists, or rehearse Job’s story, or even listen to Christ’s prayer in the garden just before His crucifixion.  If the pain is not embraced, then we will avoid it, minimize it, or deny it – none of which helps us to “deal with it.”  Instead, those things cause our pain to begin oozing in its suppression and to find disguised or distorted ways to express itself.  I must acknowledge the pain and I must acknowledge why it is there.

But, as I embrace my pain, I must also walk forward in my journey to embrace truth.  Embracing my pain will allow me to take it honestly before God.  Within that honesty, I will be aware that I am totally incapable of “working through it” by myself.  I need the strength, the encouragement, the perspective, the enablement, the ability to “start over” if necessary, that only God can give.  I need the capacity to forgive.  I need the capacity to live with my pain even as God begins to soften it.  Truth will be found in an accurate understanding of who I am and what has touched my life, but more importantly, truth will be found in pursuing God.  He will reveal Himself and His principles of truth in His Word and through open interaction with other God-centered believers.  He will reveal the essence of His truth as He touches the very heart of my being over and over again – without a calendar, without a prescribed listing of “this is how it is done,” without chastising me because I am still “there.”  And yet, I will be growing, perhaps slowly at first, but still growing and moving forward.  Whatever the pain, whatever the vulnerability, I may always live with a remembrance of its presence, but it will be softened, and the pain, the vulnerability, will become a means of my extending His truth – His grace – to someone else.  Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.  He will give me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see what he has done and be amazed.

                                                                             – Bev

(Related Bible reading: Psalm 62:1,2,5-7; Psalm 40:1-3)