Pain

All of us have experienced it at some point in our lives. A break-up, a broken friendship, or the death of a loved one. The sources may change but the result stays the same. We end up hurt. Due to the broken world we live in, we are bound to experience some form of emotional pain during our life. When those times come we have to respond.

Pain will always demand a response.

When you step on a sharp object your body automatically responds by pulling your foot away. In the same way, when we experience emotional pain we automatically respond. The question that must be addressed, however, is what kind of response will be warranted?

Do you respond by allowing the pain to engulf you? Or do you push through the pain, and continue on?

When We Let the Pain Take Over

Unfortunately, there will be occasions when we believe the emotional pain is too great, and we allow it to take over. When this happens we subject ourselves to external pressures that we believe will alleviate the pain we're experiencing.

Drugs, drinking, smoking, sex, and self-harm are several things people do to decrease, ignore, or alleviate the emotional pain they are experiencing. Friends, while those things may appear to ease the pain, they are only sweeping it under the rug. Guess what happens when you continually sweep something under the rug. It eventually comes out and makes a huge mess.

Drowning out the pain with something else doesn't address the problem, it only delays it.

Pushing Through and Pressing On

Instead of allowing the pain you experience to take over, push through! Don't give into it! When you allow the pain to engulf your life and dwell on it, you give it power. Pain, especially emotional pain, will have power over your life and will dictate your actions if you allow it. Friends, this only leads to more pain.

"Okay Ethan, I get it. I need to press on. But how?"

Acceptance

Whatever unfortunate circumstance that occurred that is causing you pain is already in the history books. More often than not you will be unable to change the circumstances that you're in, however, you can change how you react.

Part of the healing process for any situation is acceptance. Once we have accepted what is going on we can deal with it more effectively.

Hope

You may feel like you're in a hopeless situation, but know this: there is always hope. For me, my hope is in Jesus Christ. I know that no matter the circumstances of my life Jesus is always there for me. My hope is in him because I know that better days are coming and that he uses everything for our good.

My encouragement to you is to have hope. All of us will experience pain at some point , and when we do what will our hope be found in? Will it be something temporary, or something that's eternal?