Prayers and Meditations for Those in Chronic Distress
Pain and Joy[1]
Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted.
We believe our pain excludes blessing.
There is no blessing in pain, only
distress.
But can the two not exist
together?
Jesus was a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief.
But He also promised His joy to
His followers -
Complete joy, a full measure of
joy, joy that no one and nothing can take away.
If we stop pushing what pains us
away,
If we accept it and receive it as
our present reality,
May we not also find joy?
Confusion
Chronic illness and pain bring us
to a place of confusion and unknowing.
If God’s will is for healing, then
why am I still like this?
But unknowing is also a holy
place.
We are vulnerable in our
unknowing.
We are open.
We can’t close the box and say,
“Now I have all the answers I need.”
Unknowing tells us we need more
answers.
But we don’t even know the right
questions.
So we come to God without answers
and without questions.
We come, and are just as we are
with Him.
And He is God, as He is, with us.
This is a place of perfect
relating -
Honest, open, no agendas,
Each alive to the other, receiving
the other and offering ourselves purely.
There will always be much we never
know.
There will always be much about
God we never know.
This is our holy meeting place.
Connection
All of us enter into distress for
a season.
But for some of us, there is no
season - our pain has no end in this
life.
Those around us rise to help us in
our season of distress.
But only the exceptional walk with
us for a lifetime.
When others walk with us, life is
as it should be - connected.
But only if they walk with us
without pity.
Pity says that I am not in a
sacred place,
I am not in God’s circle of
friends.
We need people to walk with us who
celebrate us,
And who can share that celebration
with us -
People whom we also celebrate for
who they are,
And with whom we can share that
celebration.
Pain shows us how to celebrate
people.
When those who hurt cannot do
enough,
And those who come alongside do
too much.
We are in a place of guilt.
To celebrate, we must leave that
place
And see one another for who we
are.
That is where our connectedness is
-
In our humanity.
That is where we celebrate.
Choice
When pain comes, we think we have no choice but to suffer.
Because we can’t change our circumstances.
But while pain is part of life,[2]
Suffering is a choice.
It is one response to pain among many others.
We can be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.[3]
Hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.
Perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted, but not abandoned.
Struck down, but not destroyed.[4]
Having nothing, and yet possessing everything.[5]
It is not pain that is our enemy.
Pain is just a messenger.
It tells us that something is wrong.
Sometimes we can fix that wrong thing,
And the pain goes away.
Sometimes we can’t fix it,
And we continue to hurt.
Then we choose.
How will we relate to this thing in our life
That we would sooner not have?
Can we forgive it,
Reconcile ourselves to it,
Live at peace with it?
Can we stop rejecting this part of our life
And embrace it instead?
Learn from it?
Stop judging it?
Let it get close?
Can we learn the truth that in this world we will have trouble,
But we are not to fear because Jesus has overcome the world?[6]
Can we learn to live out of sufficient grace?[7]
Can we learn delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties?
For when I am weak, then I am strong.[8]
Can we learn the truth about ourselves -
That we are not victims, but more than conquerors?[9]
Can we learn the truth about our God -
That not even this can stop His love flowing into our lives.[10]
And this is enough.
This is a secret well worth the learning.[11]
Saying Goodbye
All pain involves a goodbye, a loss, a separation.
Goodbyes are so hard.
For a while we hang on,
Refusing to let go until we can’t hold on any longer.
Then we sadly say goodbye.
Only to find that this is our healing.
Only to find that this is also hello.
[1] Matthew 5:4 [Jesus speaking] Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
John 15:11 [Jesus speaking]I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
John 17:13 [Jesus speaking in prayer] I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
John 16:22 [Jesus speaking] So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
[2] Job 5:7 “Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.”
[3] 2 Corinthians 6:10a “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”
[4] 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
[5] 2 Corinthians 6:10c “…having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
[6] 1 John 16:33 [Jesus speaking] “”I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
[7] 2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.”
[8] 2 Corinthians 12:10 “That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
[9] Romans 8:35-37 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
[10] Romans 8:38-39 “38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
[11] Philippians 4:12-13 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”