The presence of pain is hiding inside of spiritual people. Is God enough when we are hurting?

A SPIRITUAL INTERVENTION

There are things that we don’t talk about in the church. People are hurting who are sitting next to us. Do we know what to say to them? Can we help them? How do we help them? If we know about the area of pain—often we don’t because the sensitive stuff is hidden from view—do we brush them aside or give a pat answer to a deep-seated issue? We may find ourselves thinking; I wonder how much is God, them, or other factors?

When we choose to help people in a genuine way, we start asking the harder questions. From this we learn that there are serious issues that believers in God are struggling with to overcome in their lives. We want to sort it out and make sense of it. Is it sin? Is it rebellion? Is it a lack of trust in God or lack of following in obedience?

So, we wonder what gives or whether there is help for the pain? Is it a spiritual splinter that can’t be removed or fixed? Then we notice the despair, the struggle, the unhappiness. Shouldn’t there be more evidence that the spiritual walk is doable and works? It gets confusing.

We begin to search for a common denominator. We delve deeper. We are determined to explain what is missing or what went wrong.

The questions compile and the answers are complex. We meet more and more people struggling with their Christian walk, living in defeat rather than in victory. What can we do to help? Why do some Christian people sink into depression? Why do others drink themselves to oblivion? Why are they workaholics? Why do some avoid life, run and hide, and then go and repeat the cycle, hurting more people—the casualties—as they barrel ahead going from church to church or partner to partner.

The contradictions are relentless. Why do some individuals build a small empire of stuff? Why do other people give up? Why do some Christians complain about anything and everything, become negative, critical, cynical, and act in unpleasant ways? Even more complex, why do good Christian people hide their deepest heartaches and act as if everything is okay, when it is not okay? How have word curses or negative experiences from long ago or in recent days, hurt and destroyed the person’s inner belief about their personhood?

And, and, and… and then it zings home. The real truth. There’s more to this.

This is also about me! I, too, have some inner pain. I’ve forgotten about, that. I don’t want to think about that incident. That hurt. It’s too painful. It doesn’t take much imagination to picture yourself back in the memory in the midst of your pain, feeling the hopelessness, sadness, embarrassment. Maybe you lost your employment, finances, or that person who was important to you. Maybe you compromised your values, disappointed your parents and in the process destroyed their belief in you, or you used poor judgment on an important decision. Maybe someone in the church caused harm and destruction which became a breeding ground of conflicted emotions inside of you.

Whatever the issue was, it has caused a separation and a deadness. It’s that “alone” feeling, the isolating place that walls you off from others. It may be one of those things you don’t talk about; it’s embarrassing, or shameful, or hurtful, uncomfortable, sad, or might seem silly to others. In each of us, there are times when everyone seems distant. There are areas in our lives where they aren’t allowed in.

You finally get it. This is a big deal. One that’s not going to fade away. Other matters begin to seem less important. You may wonder to yourself, will they find a way out? Will I find a way out? Is there a solution to this spiritual condition, the misery that hides, that never finds its hope, that keeps people feeling entrapped?

Have you ever felt that kind of aloneness, that separation, that suffocating feeling?

If you have, there is a solution but not a solution people readily take advantage of or even know about.There is always hope. Never forget that, there is always a new tomorrow even in the darkness.

Our next post will explore this subject in more depth.

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©N. L. Brumbaugh

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