The Purpose of Pain- An Emotional Recovery

Greetings,

In my last post, The Purpose of Pain- An Emotional Reality, I shared about the reality of emotional pain. It is important to realize this reality but it is also important to realize that there is a road to recovery. I know what you're thinking, why on earth is he talking about recovery, I can deal with this reality in my own way and on my own time.

Sadly, while we may think we can overcome this reality on our own, it’s just doesn't work that way. We can hope, and even dream about finding our way back to calmer waters in life but finding our way back isn't something I want to dream about. When we try to find our way back in the midst of the storms thrust upon each of us on our own, we will only get lost in a sea of brokenness. Check out Ecclesiastes 4:10-12.

Once we slip deeper into the storm of reality around us things start to get misconstrued. We see things that we think are a reality but really they are just another illusion of the reality that we once had. There is a road to recovery though, and it’s not necessarily the road that you may think I’m talking about.

Let’s take a deeper look at the reality of emotional pain. It’s a part of life, we all have to work through it and as I said in my previous post it is NEVER easy. Emotional pain is born through loss. It is born through immense suffering and can tear a person apart from within, in many cases it does. Emotional pain is one of the hardest things to endure and I know from experience, having someone tell me to basically get over it and trust that God will help you through it, while true has never really set well with me.

When we experience loss in life, we don’t want people to tell us it’s going to get better, we just want someone to be there for us and help us along the way. Don’t tell me that God has a reason for everything. I already know that, just listen and be there for me when I need you to be, I will tell you when I’m ready to start moving on. Here is an article from Huffington Post that shares this philosophy, 5 Powerful Ways to Help Someone in Emotional Pain written by Dr. Sandra Hamilton.

I don’t know about anyone else, but anytime I’ve had to endure loss in my family or of those I love in life, I’ve always found more comfort in a simple embrace. When I lost my mother back in 2009, it wasn’t the people that said it will get better that helped me get through it, it was those that stopped what they were doing to come spend time with me or in those that came up to me and said, “I know it hurts, come here and lean on me for a moment or two.”  

Honestly, if Jesus himself came to me during a time of emotional pain, I believe his response would be very similar to that. I believe he would take me in his arms and let me sit with him a while, as that old song says. Revelations 21:4 promises this to us.

Recovery is a long road, but there are those along the way we can let be apart of it. Instead of trying to explain the reasons behind why we've all seemingly been cursed with emotional pain, we can simply just be a helping hand in times of need. Instead of trying to make everyone who endures emotional pain get over it and move on, we can simply offer an embraceable moment. Instead of leaving someone in the midst of their brokenness, we can be a part of loving them through it. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes we will need a kick in the pants, so to speak, but what matters more is the way that kick in the pants is given.

Yes, God is with us through our pain, but the way he helps us work through it is simply, something special. Let Him lead you.

Are you willing? Will you open your heart? Can you be emotional with me? Let’s accept it and embrace a better future for ourselves and everyone else.… Until next post check out these books on Working through Emotional Pain... Clicking on the covers will take you to their amazon pages...

         

Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20

M.J. Elliott

Book Review- Marriage God's Way by Pastor Scott LaPierre

Greetings, 

I was recently given the opportunity to read a book written by one of our ministry partners. The book, Marriage God's Way by Scott LaPierre, is a spectacular piece and offers a lot of insight into what marriage should be.  Pastor Scott is the the senior pastor of Woodland Christian Church. He and his wife, Katie, have been blessed with six children and enjoy every crazy minute of parenting as husband and wife they are given. Below you can see a picture of them that links to his facebook page.

Pastor Scott and His Family

I don't normally write book reviews but this book is well worth the time it took to write this small review. The book itself was a bit longer that I originally thought it was going to be but every page I read had some type of helpful information for those that are curious about what marriage should be all about from the biblical perspective. Hands down this books gets 5 stars in my book, no pun intended. 

I completely believe that this book will offer some great insight into any marriage. For those that are newly weds it teaches the basics about everything you need to make your marriage work. For those that have been married for years it teaches about respecting your spouse and understanding their needs better. It's a great read and I encourage you to take a look. The book's cover is captured below and will link you directly to its Amazon page.

Marriage God's Way by Scott LaPierre was a very informative and enlightening book. I can see that the Pastor Scott has really put a lot of thought and prayer into the contents of this book. From beginning to end the Biblical platform presented in a historical way that really could help a lot of marriages. Both encouraging and challenging for both the husband and wife, I wish I had something like this when my wife and I first got married, it would have been a huge asset to our marriage when we were just starting out. Having something like this easy read would have made our journey together so far even better.

As someone who went through marriage counseling before I was married and as someone who has offered counsel to others since getting married, I still found some very good insight into how I should view my wife. The mixture of personal experience with professional and biblical experience captured my attention more than most other books I’ve read. I intend to keep reading through it until I've captured every enlightening aspect in my own marriage. Pastor Scott LaPierre truly has a passion for reaching others for Christ and being a Biblical example of Marriage God's Way that all men should aspire to be.

Making a marriage work is a team effort and many of us lose sight of that along the way. Pastor Scott mentions in the first few chapters of this book that God comes first, A spouse should come directly after that and everything else follows. I really like that philosophy and feel the it is the aspect that really makes marriages survive even the hardest of moments.

Don’t take my word for it though, check it out for yourselves.

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Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20

M.J. Elliott

The Purpose of Pain- An Emotional Reality

Greetings,

I started this little series a while back, the first post is entitled, Thoughts on the purpose of pain. I've been thinking about it a lot more lately and thought I'd share a bit more.

There are days when we all feel all feel pain as a part of our daily experience and it’s never easy. One of of the more challenging types of pain we must endure in life has everything to do with emotional pain. We all have encountered this and I’m sure that there are some out there that are experiencing this type of pain today.

This type of pain has always boggled my mind and I’ve never really understood why we must endure it in life. Many say that we endure this type of pain because, in the end, God will use that pain to bring honor to his name. I’ve always thought that was kind of selfish. Why should we endure pain just so God can be glorified. It’s never really made any since to me. I see it every day on social media, sometimes from youth or children I’ve worked with in throughout my life and other times I see it blasted all over the news stations and even in those closest to me.

I’ve never really believed that enduring emotional pain was something that we as humans should have to endure.  The reality though is that we live in a world that is surrounded by pain. Emotional Pain feeds on our hearts and our souls. It takes over the deepest part of our inner most being and often causes another type of pain, physical. We can hurt so much emotionally that it spills over into our stomach and becomes almost unbearable.  

It is the reason we are seeing so many more suicidal deaths in the world today. Just the other day I read a story about someone who jumped onto some train tracks and just stood their as the train ran him over.  I couldn’t believe it, as soon as I read this my heart sunk and tears started slipping down my cheek. For someone to be in so much emotional pain that they would be willing to endure such a death like this was unbearable to me.

I thought about that person for the rest of the day and wondered what could have happened to the person, or if there had been one more person willing to reach out to that man or woman and listen for once. We get so wrapped up in the world around us that we often forget to reach out to those around us. We get so focused on our own goals in life that we lose sight of those that need a friend or two to reach out to them in their time of need.

It got me thinking about the emotional pain that has taken it’s toll on my life and I am beginning to realize, if there hadn’t been those special people in my life who took the time to listen to my brokenness, and those that do when I feel it today. I ask myself, would it have became so bad that I might have done something similar to what that person did in the news story.

Honestly, I really don’t know, all I can really say is that I’m blessed to have those that are willing to listen and help me work through the times of emotional pain that have come, gone and one day be back again. I guess the reason behind this post is to simply say, emotional pain is real and it affects all of us. My challenge for you would be to take the time, this person whom ever it was will never have that time again. Regardless of who it was, their story should motivate us to do better in life. I know it motivates me.

Are you willing? Will you open your heart? Can you be emotional with me? Let’s accept it and embrace a better future for ourselves and everyone else.… Until next post check out these books on pain and suffering...

Blessings in Christ and Thanks again for visiting us at "The Gathering Room."

"Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord." 45.3.20

M.J. Elliott