Accepting Pain in Our Lives

May 10 is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day.  I've lived with fibromyalgia pain for about 15 years now, since I was a young Dad in my late 30s.  Like everyone with chronic pain, I've spent much time, money, & energy in trying to get rid of or reduce my pain.  But for some reason, God continues to allow it in my body.  As a friend once said to me, maybe it's my cross to bear.

I gradually had to come to accept my pain, as it comes every day and night.  The thing is, I've learned from this physical pain, and in a few unexpected ways, God's actually blessed me through it.  The most basic thing I've learned from it is humility.  I had some success in my younger years, and without my pain, I may have become proud, a guy with an ego problem.

When the apostle Paul wrote about his thorn in the flesh, he wrote, Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12: 8-9). 
God has used my pain to keep me humble and to help me emphasize and sympathize with others who live with chronic pain.  Studies say that a third to half of the people in our lives, live with some kind of chronic pain.  Thus it seems like God's used my pain to make me a better, more caring person.

If you know someone with chronic pain, ask how you can help him/her in their daily life, and be prepared to listen and help.  Be careful about saying things like, "God will heal you," or "if you did this or than, you'd be better off."  Words like those can cause more damage than help.  Praying for someone with pain is great, but realize you might not understand how God's using pain in that person's life, or whether God desires to heal her/him.  Be a servant-friend to that person; that would be a way to truly love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus Himself suffered severe agony and pain in the 24 hours leading up to his death on the cross.  Let us follow the Master by accepting pain in our lives and letting God use it to teach us.