♪A Note of Thanks ♪
“My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” Psalm 119:50
“Isn’t He, beautiful? Beautiful, isn’t He? Prince of Peace, Son of God, isn’t He, isn’t He?
Isn’t He, Wonderful? Wonderful, isn’t He? Counselor, Almighty God, isn’t He, isn’t He? Isn’t He?” - John Wimber
Feeling pain…as we get older, we have aches and pains, physical, spiritual and emotional. Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest and professor has written a book recently, “An Altar in the World.” Basically the book is about discovering God in every part of your life. One of the chapters entitled “The Practice of Feeling Pain” hit home to me. Do you have a practice feeling pain? Taylor is quick to point out that feeling pain, though generally unwanted, is a necessary part of being human.
Taylor says that it is actually the times of pain and suffering that allow us to break through our old habits, our old patterns of living, our old ways of understanding God. The Psalmist, writing more than two millennia ago, sang, “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” Can that be your song in the midst of heartache and suffering? As Christians, we proclaim that God is with us in good times and in bad, but it actually may be the bad times that have the power to break open our hearts so that we can encounter God and become more fully human.
My friend, Rev. Randy Kessler, pastor of Bessemer’s First Presbyterian Church, says that many times, during those difficult times in our lives, God seems to have us in a protective bubble. We don’t always understand it, but upon looking back, during the pain and suffering, He is with us, right along-side us. Friends, family and His Holy Spirit are there to comfort us, when seemingly things look as if they might cave in. As we come through the pain to the other side, we are, many times, stronger and with a determination to keep on keeping on - that’s perseverance!
The refrain of a familiar invitation hymn says: “I surrender all. I surrender all. All to you my blessed Savior, I surrender all.” I wonder if the reason this song speaks to us when we sing it is because we all know what it is like to get to a place in our lives where our pain, be it physical or emotional, leads us to the reality that all we can do is surrender our lives – heart, mind, soul and strength – to God. Perhaps that is what Lent is all about: Coming to grips with the fact that surrendering our lives, including our pain, to God is the path of Jesus, the suffering servant, who led the way and taught us that our comfort in suffering is our God, who will not leave us nor forsake us.
Holy One, You alone know my pain and my suffering. Come to me and remind me of your promise to love me and be with me. Let your promise be enough. In Jesus’ Precious and Holy Name. Amen.
As we go through this Lenten journey and looking beyond the pain into the eyes of Him who suffered and gave Himself for us, I remain, your friend,
Mark David Jackson
