WHEN PAIN DEMANDS PRIORTIY

Any type of pain can make its presence known, and it will demand attention. It will fight attempts to silence or eliminate it. Emotional pain will “sneak in the back door” or wait for the darkest spot in your life. Pain seems to gain strength when life beckons. It blows up, pitches a tantrum, and cries for a front row seat. It does not slink off somewhere and pout.

What we need is comfort and the means to find what works for us. But how can we reject the types of comfort others suggest?

We must give ourselves permission to say, “That doesn’t work for me.”

Emotional, mental, or physical pain can keep you wide-awake, dreading the fast pitch coming your way. And most of the time you will not see the projectile, until it knocks you to your knees, breaks your heart, or makes your body tremble.

Fighting back is permissible! But how should you attempt such a task, when comfort is what you seek? Not everyone’s method of dealing with chronic or even temporary pain is the same. Always try to remember that.

Allow yourself the right to find what comforts you.

• Perhaps, it is the act of running away, taking a quiet walk, or seeking what nature has to provide.
• Does fervent prayer and Bible reading take the edge off your pain?
• Can comfort mean retreating from the demands of a stressful relationship and letting your mind and body relax?
• Is comfort the act of seeking friends willing to listen and gently suggest avenues, with which you might discover a treatment?
• Maybe shutting out the world and curling up in bed for the day helps you and is the best thing to do.
• Or can a person combine more than one tactic to get through a bout with  pain?

Not everyone responds the same to basic ways of comfort. Some people need permission to walk their own path to healing or calmness. So, try what soothes you and do it in your time frame. Ignore the ones who say, “You should be over this by now.”

Proverbs 3:6 holds a tiny clue to life and perhaps, to comfort. “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

Thy paths? Could that verse also include walking a path toward comfort?

Psalms 22:24 tells us God hears our cries. And think about it . . . he knows how different we all are from our neighbor or family members. Not everyone fits in the same mold.

After we have passed through a time of pain and stress, mental or physical, the Lord gives us the ability to comfort others who are hurting or in trouble. So, we shouldn’t lump everyone together and put a tag on them, declaring, “Thou must be healed by now”. We can talk about what helped us the most and offer it, or encourage someone to consider other methods.

In today’s society, pain medicine seems to be the only way to cope with physical pain, emotional trauma, mental anguish, or general fatigue. Down the pills and keep up the pace! We don’t give ourselves the right to pull away from society’s “treadmill of treatment”.

Comfort buffers the pain. So, what is comfort to you?

• Is it a long talk with a true friend?
• Is it a day on the lake with only the sky, the boat, and a fishing pole?
• Is it a quiet day curled up in a darkened room, relaxing, and letting the world fight its own battles for an hour or more?
• Is it a brisk walk down a wooded path, just you and the fuzzy dog?
• Is it a time of talking to someone who has experienced the same pain?

Ask God to guide your search and provide the special touches you need.

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation (affliction), that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4   KJV

Wow! Sure is a lot of “comfort” in those verses? Go, receive, and do likewise!

Thank you for reading!

~Karen

Copyright © Karen Campbell Prough 2015