Are you in pain today? Ask God to redeem it – to transform your experience of it. He will show you Jesus in your pain.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and for any of you who are struggling with pain, guess what!
It’s National Pain Awareness Month – like we need to be reminded of it, right? If anybody needs to be made aware of pain, well, you and I could always get on the roof and scream really loud – that will let everyone know how much it hurts, right? But I’ll be honest here; for all the years I have struggled with pain, I am always learning something new: a different technique, the benefits of deep breathing, perhaps a new medication or treatment. We can always learn something new about managing pain in a way that keeps the lid on it, or at least tries to.
But sometimes, it’s the old, familiar way of approaching pain that often promises the best relief. And if you are to the point, like I am, where you realize pain is not going to go away – there’s nothing new on the market, there’s no innovative technique that’s going to change things – if you realize your pain is pretty much a chronic condition that’s going to stick with you, then the best thing is to let God redeem it. Invite God to transform your pain. Oh, sure, continue to take steps to relieve it as best you’re able, but ask the Lord to exchange your experience of it – that’s what it means to redeem things. Ask God to help you better reflect him through your pain, and to be better equipped to minister his comfort to others who are in pain. Ask God to show you Jesus in your pain. ’Cause if you practice this approach, then you can be absolutely confident that God will transform your experience of it.
It happened to me just this past week. Last Friday, I had to undergo my monthly Faslodex shot – it’s a couple of really big needles that deliver a chemo drug to prevent my cancer from reoccurring. And not only does the infusion hurt going in, but it exacerbates my pain. So, the next day, Saturday morning, when I was stiff and sore and getting up in my wheelchair, my helper read to me an encouraging poem. She said to me, “Joni, this is going to help your pain,” and it did. It’s a poem by Julius Sturm and it goes, “Pain’s furnace heat within me quivers, God’s breath upon the flame[s] does blow; And all my heart in anguish shivers and trembles at the fiery glow; And yet I whisper, ‘As God will!’ And in the hottest fire hold still.
“He comes and lays my heart, all heated, on the hard anvil, minded so, into his own fair shape to beat it with his great hammer, blow on blow; And yet I whisper, ‘As God will!’ And at his heaviest blows hold still. He takes my softened heart and beats it; The sparks fly off at every blow; He turns it o’er and o’er and heats it, And lets it cool, and makes it glow; And yet I whisper, ‘As God will!’ And in his mighty hand hold still.
“Why should I complain? For the sorrow then only longer-lived would be; The end may come, and will tomorrow, when God has done his work in me; So I say trusting, ‘As God will!’ and trusting to the end, hold still.”
And friend, perhaps that is the best pain remedy of all. Under God’s sovereign, good hand, may we all learn to hold still. And if you’d like a copy of this special poem, ask for it today at joniradio.org. Also, I have another wonderful gift for you if you struggle with pain. It’s a booklet called “Chronic Pain: Living by Faith when your Body Hurts.” It’s all ready and waiting for you at joniradio.org. God bless you today, and thanks for listening!
© Joni and Friends