WHAT DO I DO WHEN I HURT

Sometimes the Lord calms the storm; sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms the child.
~ unknown

It has been my experience that pain can drive us in two directions. Either it can make us angry at God for allowing our misery, or drive us to Him for relief. We all have heard the saying "God helps those who help themselves." I like it better when it says something like "God helps us when we are helpless." It is much more comforting.

Sickness has taught me that being active is not the only way to serve God. But God has shown me that He is also glorified through susffering.

I think that maybe the Lord gave me suffering so that I could help others as they suffer through being disabled.

Jesus said, "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight" -Matthew 10:27. What does that mean? I think it means when things are at there worst, be quiet, listen to God.

I have been in pain everyday for the last 13 years. I have had to have 7 surgeries on my right leg and due to staph infections have lost the use of my let and am confined to a wheelchair. But that is great! You see up until just 3 years ago, I wasn't able to get out of bed into a wheelchair. So even in my pain and suffering there is joy.

I think those of us who do suffer a lot need to be mindful not to be resentful. I think our attitude towards our suffering and disabilities can make our sickness worse and cause us to become bitter people.

Christians who are strong in their faith grow as we accept whatever God allows to enter our lives. I know for me, talking to God everyday and spending a lot of time reading is when he would talk to me. He was always with me everyday and still is.

David refused to resign himself to the defeats that sometimes threatened to overtake him. More than once, in his personal account as well as his public life, he seemed to be "down for the count" - but he always looked beyond the obstacle or problem to God himself. Like King David when we are in the lowest point I say, "I lift my eyes up to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth" - Psalm 121:1-2

If we have our eyes upon ourselves, our problems, and our pain, we cannot lift our eyes upward.

James said, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything? - James 1:2-4

I don't know if I consider my pain a pure joy, but I will persevere and I hope to be found complete and not lacking anything. I know for me personally my faith has gotten stronger and has gotten much deeper in a spiritual sense. Could this still have happened without my pain and suffering? I guess so....but it has been because of the suffering that I have leaned more on the shoulder of Christ.

When we are so much part of the world we lose sight of eternity, we can lose our joy. If I keep heaven in my view I find I remain calm and even cheerful in the darkest day. If we lived less for material things and more for things eternal and spiritual, we would be less upset be this present life.

How do we repsond to crisis or suffering? We can resent suffering, resign ourselves to it, or accept it with joy because we know God is in control of our lives.

Amy Carmichael, who lived in almost constant pain, is a striking example of a Christian whose physical suffering inabled her to reflect the character of Christ. She lived her life rejoicing in the midst of tribulation. She wrote this poem:

Before the winds that blow do cease,
Teach me to dwell within Thy calm:
Before the pain has passed in peace,
Give me, my God, to sing a psalm.
Let me not lost the chance to prove
The fullness of enabling love.
O love of God, do this for me:
Maintain a constant victory.

God works in unexpected ways to bring us strength and joy in the midst of suffering. Without the dark clouds in our lives we would never know the joy of the sunshine.

What do you do when you hurt?


Peace to you,
Grandma

Mod Edit: All Caps – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 12/1/2009 by Mirthful Me]

Grandma, you remind me of my boyfriend's mom (who is a pastor in the church). It's really comforting!

When I hurt, I bake and cook. A lot. Sometimes I cry or sleep, but baking helps the best.
There's chocolate bread dough in my fridge that will be in the oven later tonight.

reply to post by ravenshadow13

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ravenshadow13:

Baking is good when one is down. I love to cook and bake. I was only able to begin cooking again August of '08. It had been over 4 years since I had cooked a meal. I was so excited. It was a meatloaf supper with all the trimmings. One of my grandsons said to me after dinner "Grandma I am so glad that you are able to cook again." 'You cook with love." I think he missed my cooking.

You have fun doing your baking.

I sometimes think I could be a pastor. I seem to have that desire in my heart anyway.


Peace to you,
Grandma

Glad to see your positive attitude.

I was starting to get too reliant on painkillers and sleeping tablets for a broken vertebrae in my back.

It wasn't so much the pain but the inactivity,boredom and insomnia.

It may sound dumb but I found a couple of sips of good ole Scottish whiskey was more effective till physio started working for me.


Now I just get by on adrenaline and gratitude for an improvement in health.

There's another natural painkilling activity but I couldn't help you there.

reply to post by AGENT_T

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AGENT_T:

Yes, it is easy to get addicted to the pain killers and the sleeping pills. I have been on many different types. The one I take now helps a lot. Doesn't totally take away my pain but helps me be able to work through it.

I found God a steady source of help and encourgement. I can really relate to the "Footprints In The Sand" poem. He has carried me many, many times.


Peace to you,
Grandma

Have you tried or heard of the 'TENS pain control units?

en.wikipedia.org...

The body is basically a huge electric powered machine,reliant on signal being passed from nerves to the brain.
You can fool these messages by interrupting them with small electric pulses,masking the pain signals.

My next step was going to be acupuncture,but I only had safety pins to hand.

reply to post by AGENT_T

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AGENT_T:

I will need to ask my doctor about this. I sounds interesting. I would love to get off of the pain mds.



Peace,
Grandma

reply to post by Grandma

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What it means to me is this; God often speaks to me at night (I don't block him as easily as in the daylight). Almost always he wants me to share what he told me the night before.

Also, the dark depicts to me: knowledge that not all "see." Not all can understand or are prepared for direct knowledge and need it to come via a spiritual teacher until the person can remove all the filters and blocks that stand in their way.

A lot of the direct communication I have with him - I am meant to share at some point.

--------------------------------

About you! I am so sorry to hear of your infirmity and pain. Pain can be a great challenge.

I underwent a serious operation a few years ago and easily could have died. But the thing that was ever present in the forefront of my mind was; the fact that I knew God was not done with me, and my role here on earth.

I kept picturing Abraham and that he knew he would not actually have to kill his son because he knew about the plan! He knew his son was going to fulfill a very important role. This helped me. I knew in my heart, and spiritually, I wasn't finished.

You help a lot of people. I hear peoples responses to your posts. They are very grateful. We don't always have to agree to see that someone's heart is with God!

reply to post by ravenshadow13

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Emphasis mine:



A woman is a pastor of a Christian church?

That's kinda strange to me.

There aren't any woman pastors/teachers in MY Bible.

I play my guitar with my amp turned up really loud, And sing about my feelings and pain. Soon the cops come and really give me something to feel bad about.

reply to post by PreTribGuy

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PreTribGuy:

Hate to tell you, but the world does allow women to pastor churches these days. The bible tells us that a pastor is called by God to that post. If God calls a women into the ministry who are we to say no and deny that calling?


Something to think about!


Peace,
Grandma

I am sorry that you are suffering! I have a very high tolerance for pain, to the point where I had an abcess on my eardrum and did not even know it until it ruptured and blood flowed from my ear, so when I am in pain its usually bad. I try to find a quiet place in my mind and focus on that. It helps me. I overcome it mentally...I hope that makes sense.

Greenize:

Ouch, sorry about your eardrum. Yes, I agree sometimes when I hurt the most is when I need to kind of withdraw into myself and gather my strength and center myslef again.

2 Co 12:9 "But he said to me. "My grace us sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

I don't know what Paul's affliction was but it must have been very painful for him, as he prayer a number of times to be healed, but Jesus never did heal Paul. However, Paul was not resentful or angry. Instead he learned to use his pain for the glory of Christ.

We all are to carry our crosses whatever they may be. It's how we carry them that the world is watching.

Peace,
Grandma

There are women in the Old and New Testament that the Lord worked through.

Perhaps you are too ridged in your adherence to ideals and you are expecting the world to also follow those ideals in like manner.
The reality is that we do not live in an ideal world. I was just like you in some respects, at least from what I read of your posts on ATS/BTS.
I spent 26 yrs. studying the bible. I received my first certificate when I was 9 years old for completing an Old and New Testament Bible Course designed for young adults(youth in their teens). I did this on my own, with no unction from parents. I was a born again believer at age 8. I received a Ministerial Degree when I was 26 yrs old(Pentecostal). I thought I was a great loving and compassionate Christian. I had all the right verses memorized so I could give all the pat answers to anyone that said anything that didn't fit 100 percent with scripture. I listened to nothing but Christian music, went to all the meetings, held bible studies in my Home, gave to the Church, etc. etc.

But I had an awakening, which forced me to realize that some of the ideals taught as Church Doctrine do not always work in the real world. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the Bible, what I am saying is the problem is our perceptions of the Bible, especially the NT Teachings in the Epistles to the churches(more on that in a bit)

I also leaned that Jesus never Spoke 1611 King James English. I also learned that I had NOT become the compassionate person that I thought I was. I had become a rigid, cram a Bible verse down your throat, uncompassionate, cold, callous moron. In fact, I instantly was wakened to the fact that MOST fundamentalist conservative, bible believing, church going people were exactly like I had become.....deluded. The ideals are all fine and dandy in an ideal world, but our world will Never be ideal until Jesus comes again. You can be separate spiritually speaking, but people are deluded if they think they can just live separate from the world. Even the Amish are coming out of their shell.

Now I had attended several churches for long periods of time, and in various parts of the country, and they were all the same....control freaks.....people who pride themselves on their ROTE knowledge of scripture and their ability to impress others by slapping people in the face with it. No one could even go out for a coffee with them without them talking like they are Jesus. They talked the talk, but never had the walk...never had the Humility, Patience, Meekness, or a life resigned to God out or Love and appreciation for Him. They were harsh criticizers, mean spirited back biters, gossips, etc.
Which brings me to this point. You lied about me and had a thread of mine removed by making a complaint that my main OP "was almost, if not all plagiarized" from some Book you found for sale on a website. You falsely accused me of that, and made the false claim that I was getting all this praise for my thread that I did not deserve when in fact, it was clear that the Glory goes to the Lord, not me. And you threatened to expose me. I asked for proof and you offered none. I wrote from the heart, having spent years studying all kinds of Christian authors, and all of them borrow from what they have learned. I paraphrased, wrote from memory, and it is my memory, no one else's. I did not violated the rules, as you so earnestly said I had(without proof) and with glee in your heart for having destroyed a good thread that people were getting some good from.

Well, everyone may not know where you are coming from, but I do, I was there, and that was 28 years ago for me, and I never want to go back to where I was then, or where you are now. Because you can talk the talk, but you proved to me that you do not walk the walk.

Now what you have done to me is quite ironic in the face of the very question this OP starts out with. And you did deliberately Hurt me.

[edit on 20-1-2009 by John Matrix]

John,

PreTribGuy is very good at hurting people. He has accused me of the samething. It seems like he trys to descredit any post I make.

We must be a threat to him somehow for him to attack us the way he does.

I believe you are right, he can talk the talk but he can't walk the walk!
Very well said.

Peace to you John,
Grandma

I suspected I would not be alone. I appreciate your encouragement.
I offered to give credit to one source. But I can say I have read hundreds of works by many different authors....is one supposed to list the entire bibliography for every thought and precept they have learned when they write something from their memory and heart? What I wrote was not simply copying something I found recently, I studied William Law''s uncoprighted "free to use" works in 1983 and have refreshed my memory of his writings many times. It has even effected my writing style, so what am I to do? Give it up to the Lord....it's all I can do. In the mean time the new thread is doing well and I hope it brings Glory to God.

reply to post by Grandma

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Sigh...

I'm still here reading and I'm being unfairly accused here.

I didn't realize that you had read my U2U, Grandma, but I noted a significant difference in your language here, though, (after the U2U), it got BETTER!

BECAUSE this is "your thread", Grandma, and you feel free to offer a "topic drift", I will respond.

I don't "dislike" either of you.

In FACT...

...I REALLY LIKED what both of you had "written". I wanted to engage in a conversation with either of you! I REALLY DID!

BUT, I discovered that the material (both of you) had presented was not your thoughts. Neither of you.

It was GOOD...VERY well written! I noted some slight errors...and I wanted to discuss them with BOTH of you...but instead of presenting your own thoughts...both of you took it upon yourselves to take a previous man's work and change the language (slightly) to make it sound like it was your own words.

I'm SORRY you hate me for pointing this out!! I wanted to to talk with GRANDMA and JOHN MATRIX! (Not the other guys you both used as your own words....)

I am entirely willing (if the moderators will allow it) to participate in a new thread where this accusation (towards each of us...yes ALL of us!) can be settled.

If I am wrong, I will certainly repent and offer my apologies.

(Such as: "I am sorry Grandma, you were not plagiarizing", and "I am sorry John Matrix, you were not plagiarizing.")

I am more than willing to present my case to this forum and have others decide whether or not I was correct.

I am wiling to present my "case" in front of everyone, if either of you so choose to do so. I imagine that I would need a moderators approval, though?

I am entirely willing to be proved wrong in my (originally private) accusations against both of you in front of as many witnesses as possible.

The Bible SAYS:

Matt 18:15-17 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

I believe we are at verse 17, now.

Although BTS isn't a "Church", I am willing to offer proof and let the people who read this forum decide who is right.

Again, Grandma, I don't want to "derail" your own thread...but you seem to have allowed it in your previous posts on this thread.

I stopped reading your post when I read the above line you wrote.

I also saw your statement about being accused!!! You are the one that accused. We responded to your false accusations. The truth Hurts, so suck it up and shut up.

You have no authority to judge whether someone's thoughts are their own or not. We all go to school, we all read books, we all have our favorite authors, our favorite versions of the Bible, we live, we learn, we experience, we have our favorite teachers, preachers, authors, etc. as did they and all before them. What we know and think is the sum total of our learning and life experience. Some people are the sum total of thousands of years of the accumulated life experience, learning, knowledge, wisdom etc. It's a layer upon layer accumulation and it all ends up as our own thoughts. I have seen you quote scripture after scripture as well, so don't point your finger and don't tell me your opinions are not the result of thoughts you have accepted from teachers and adopted them as your own thoughts based on your accepting them as true.

So we learn, we think, we learn more and we think more, we teach what we learn to others. Who owns the thoughts that we create in the minds of another human beings when we teach them?

We are not talking about sharing some one's secret rocket design, or patented new engine!! We are talking about Divine knowledge and wisdom passed down through the ages.

So mind your own business, examine and clean your own filthy heart, and stop playing God and Cop.
Don't tell me my thoughts or words are not my own. If I memorize, mimic, imitate, or sound a lot like, someone else, someone that has had a great influence on my Spiritual walk, my thoughts, and my writing style, tough titty.

I heard the accuser roar,
the things that I have done,
I know them well and a thousand more,
Jehovah findeth NONE.


[edit on 21-1-2009 by John Matrix]

reply to post by PreTribGuy

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You would be best off to leave it alone and let things cool down. You would also be wise to examine your own heart before you go treading on the Holy Ground that exists in the Heart of belivers.

Put some Germoline on it, that's what my Mum always says anyway.