Christian Living on Pain

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Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

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Julian of Norwich

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So pain endures for a time. Its role is to purge us, to make us to know ourselves, and it drives us to the Lord to plead for mercy.

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Kenji Miyazawa

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We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.

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Phillip Yancey

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Any discussion of how pain and suffering fit into God's scheme ultimately leads back to the cross.

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Chuck Palahniuk

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It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.

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Richard Rohr

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Isaiah 41:10, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Psalm 147:3, James 1:2-4, Romans 8:28, Isaiah 61:1

If you do not transform your pain, you will surely transmit it.

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Waiting: Leaning into the Pain

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Ashley Hales

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Exodus 16:2–4, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:25–26, Matthew 4:2–4, Romans 8:24–25, Psalm 130:5–6

With the global coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020, life stopped. Overwhelmed by the threat of a disease we couldn’t stop and for which we didn’t have the hospital capacity, everyone moved work and s...

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Adoniram Judson

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In spite of sorrow, loss, and pain, our course be onward still; we sow on Burmah's barren plain, we reap on Zion's hill.

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Ann Voskamp

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John 14:27, James 1:2-4, Psalm 147:3, Romans 8:28, Isaiah 41:10

Not one thing in your life is more important than figuring out how to live in the face of unspoken pain.

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True Healing Occurs When…

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

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Matthew 11:30, Matthew 11:28-30, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Romans 8:18, Hebrews 12:1-2, James 1:2-4

Paradoxically…healing means moving from your pain to the pain…When you keep focusing on the specific circumstances of your pain, you easily become angry, resentful, and even vindictive. You are inclin...

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Physical Therapy and Spiritual Practice

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Cody Sandahl

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Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 3:9-10, Romans 8:13, 1 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 12:11, 1 Corinthians 9:27

My transition into my 40’s came with the obligatory hip surgery. The only way to stop the cycle of hip pain was to literally carve out some bone. Those parts had to be removed. But recovering my funct...

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Max Lucado

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Does God guarantee the absence of struggle and the abundance of strength? Not in this life. But he does pledge to reweave your pain for a higher purpose.

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Alia Joy

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We are a society that despises lack. We despise weakness and need and insufficiency. We turn the other way and pretend to be watching oncoming traffic when the red light halts us and the beggar reache...

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Eternal God, our judge and redeemer, we

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Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

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1 John 1:9, Psalm 32:5, Isaiah 1:18, Psalm 51:1-2, Micah 7:18-19, Ephesians 1:7, 2 Chronicles 7:14

Eternal God, our judge and redeemer, we confess that we have tried to hide from You, for we have done wrong. We have lived for ourselves, and apart from You. We have turned from our neighbors and refu...

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Jesus, our Great Physician, our sins

Author

Charles Teixeira

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Mark 5:21-43, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:31, Matthew 9:12, Isaiah 53:5, Psalm 147:3, 1 Peter 2:24

Jesus, our Great Physician, our sins have brought wounds on ourselves and others. Heal our hearts first, that we would no longer desire the sins that have only brought us and others pain. Go on to hea...

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The Darkness of Mother Teresa

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Mother Teresa

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Most of us know Mother Teresa for her stalwart ministry to the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. But as with each of us, there is a public side of our lives and a private side. Mother Tere...

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Inspired by Psalm 130 (C)

Author

Scott B. Bullock

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Psalm 130:1-2

Out of the depths, we cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear our voice. Let your ears be attentive to our cries for mercy. Living in frailty and weakness with adversity in our path, we too often buckle in despa...

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Drawing From the Infinite Well of Joy

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

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Hebrews 4:16, 2 Corinthians 12:9, 1 Peter 5:10, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Revelation 2:10

In Jonathan Kozol’s book, Amazing Grace , he tells of the struggles and sufferings of people in a community in the Bronx, New York. He is amazed at the courage and resilience he found there. He then ...

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When Grace Strikes

Author

Brennan Manning

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Romans 5:20, Isaiah 61:1-3, Psalm 34:18, Luke 15:11-32, 1 Kings 19:1-18

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life…. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for pe...

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A Series of Resurrections

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George MacDonald

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The whole history of the Christian life is a series of resurrections. Every time a man bethinks himself that he is not walking in the light, that he has been forgetting himself, and must repent; th...

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Where is God? Hanging From the Gallows

Author

Jonathan Cornell

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Scripture

Matthew 27:46, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 3:18, John 19:30, 1 Peter 4:13

In Elie Wiesel’s Night , Eliezer is a Jewish teenager, a devoted student of the Talmud from Sighet, in Hungarian Transylvania. In the spring of 1944, the Nazis occupied Hungary. Increasingly repressi...

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When Fire Makes Things Grow

Author

Ryan Bundrick

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1 Peter 1:6-7, James 1:2-4, Romans 5:3-5, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Hebrews 12:11-13, 2 Corinthians 7:10, Zechariah 13:7-9, Daniel 3:, Isaiah 48:10

Trivia time! What natural disaster is the most destructive to a forest? Chances are that the first thing that comes to mind is a forest fire. After all, fire is pure destruction to plants. What possib...

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The Terrible Darkness of Mother Teresa

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Mother Teresa

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1 Kings 19:1-18, Job 3:1-26, 30:20-23, 42:1-6, Numbers 11:10-17, Matthew 26:36-46, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Psalm 13:1-6

Many of us assume that our spiritual heroes do not have to experience the same inner-wrestling that we do. Mother Teresa, beloved across the world is one such figure we might “assume” didn’t have to d...

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Unhooked & Unattached Christians

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The Pastor's Workshop

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Hosea 11:1-4, Micah 7:18-20, Luke 15:11-32, Ephesians 2:19-22, Psalm 19:22

While visiting a city in South America, the British Anglican pastor John Stott learned about a group of young Christian students who had become disillusioned with organized religion and formal churche...

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Adapted from Revelation 21:1-4

Author

Dustin Ray

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Scripture

Revelation 21:1-4

Leader: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. All: And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of he...

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Descend upon our hearts, Spirit of God,

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2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 1 Kings 17:8-16, Psalm 147:3, Isaiah 40:29-31, John 14:26, Romans 8:26-27

Descend upon our hearts, Spirit of God, For our wills are weak, and we need your power. Our spirits are dry, and we need your refreshment. Our minds cannot comprehend, and we need your enlightenment....

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Emotions are Divine: Why Pastors Need Biblical Permission to Feel

Author

David Lamb

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Scripture

John 11:35, Psalm 5:5, Psalm 6:1, Psalm 78:58, Psalm 78:40, Psalm 18:19, Psalm 25:6, Psalm 5:7, Exodus 20:5, Exodus 22:23, Isaiah 15:5, Luke 15:null, Genesis 23:2, Genesis 42:24, 1 Samuel 1:10, 2 Samuel 1:11-12, 2 Kings 8:11-12, 2 Kings 22:18-20, Mark 14:72, John 20:11, Acts 20:37, Revelation 5:4

When the Professor Weeps: A Personal Story About ten years ago, I was teaching a course on the psalms for my seminary students in the midst of a personal health crisis. It wasn’t in my notes, but I ...

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Acknowledging the Pain: Thoughts From the Founders Desk

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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This past week I have been at a reunion with college friends (this is the main reason I missed last week's update). It's been significant for a number of reasons. I hope to unpack a few other ...

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Healing From the Inside Out

Author

Dave Peterson

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Philippians 2:13, Psalm 147:3, James 1:2-4, Romans 8:28, Jeremiah 17:14, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Isaiah 41:10

The bad news was that a friend’s leg was severed in a gruesome automobile accident. The good news was that it was surgically reattached. A few months later she asked if I wanted to see her scar. I swa...

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My Best Medicine

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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It is often said that people die as they lived. This was certainly true of the great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther. As Luther came close to the end of his life, he suffered from severe headaches w...

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