As a minister I constantly encounter hurting people who are seeking answers as to why bad things continually happen to them. After all, if God is so loving then why in the world do people suffer the burden of pain?
Drs. Paul Meier and David Henderson tackle the tough issue of dealing with pain from a Christian perspective.
Unfortunately, we live in a broken world thanks to Adam’s sin. With sin came the tag along of pain. According to Meier and Henderson there are at least seven universal pains that we as fallen humans will encounter at some point in our life. Those pains include, but may not be limited to:
- Injustice
- Rejection
- Loneliness
- Loss
- Discipline
- Failure
- Death
Meier and Henderson have put together a great resource for ministers, lay people, and other professional Christian health providers so we can better understand the psychiatric scope of what people are dealing with, why they are dealing with their pain, and how we can administer the healing power of Jesus Christ through prayer and ministry to those who are suffering from any of these pains.
AS we go on through our lives experiencing pain we can miss some great opportunities to grow and become a better person from the experience.
Personally, I suffered a great deal of loss back in the late 90’s when three very dear friends of mine passed away within a few months of each other and from different reasons. Within six months I felt the sting of death when my friend Angela died after having a large tree fall on top of her house. While Angela was asleep, a wind storm blew through the region and forced a large old tree to topple on top of her grandmother’s house. Angela was asleep up stairs, and the tree just happened to fall on top of the roof just above where she lay. The crushing blow came to her instantly, and Angela woke up long enough to scream in pain before taking her last breath.
A couple of months following that a dear friend of mine passed away at the age of 53 of lung cancer – the same cancer had been in remission, but the cancer had already done enough damage to force her life to cut short early.
Two months after that, my best friend Bert Compton passed away from a cancer that only affects children under the age of 4. As a children’s minister, I knew the enemy threw this children’s disease his way to snuff him out before Bert could be truly more effective than before.
All these losses could have made be bitter toward God, and given me a psychological disorder that would lead me to believe that everyone I was close to would die. Instead, I let God have my grief, and my loss, and he turned it in to joy in knowing that their lives, though short, weren’t in vain, and their contribution to my life was just as valuable.
If we take time to step away from our pain we can find its purpose. Instead of fighting the pain through drugs and alcohol and destructive behavior, we must embrace it so we can become better…and not bitter!
Rev. David K. Bernard has officially been elected to head the largest Apostolic organization in the world, the United Pentecostal Church International, as its new General Superintendent.
September is supposed to be the month when NO MORE WALLS returns full force. I regret to let everyone know that the show will not resume this month. I can blame a number of factors, but I will not bore you with the details.