[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by 竜次 ryuuji via Flickr"]
[/caption]This week we are continuing to talk about being Christ-centric.
Making Christ our center.
Keeping Him in the center of each day.
In the center of a life.
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I've been thinking about pain, lately...
I cut my knee the other day. It bled a lot and it hurt.
I had a headache earlier this week and it made my neck stiff.
I don't like pain. I don't like to hurt. I try to shun it at all costs, if I can't do that, I learn to tolerate it. Sometimes pain doesn't show itself in a bloody knee, or a sore neck. Sometimes it shows itself, in ways that hurt to much to talk about.
Some days it is easier to deny the pain.
For awhile.
But then I'm forced to deal with it. Not always well. I struggle.
I am alone in my thoughts.
Isn't that the way of the human heart?
The thoughts rush through me, much like a tsunami. I wonder if this is what it feels like to drown?
...A friend who is watching the son she once knew, slip away to a confusing medical diagnosis--and doctors who don't hear her.
...Another friend who has to put his dear wife in a nursing home because her care has become to much for him
...A friend whose husband was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, at 46
...A marriage dissolves
...A family that sits in an emergency room
...An unplanned pregancy
...Broken family bonds
...Poor decisions
...Hours cut at the job, when one is barely making ends meet
...A family member whose body is worn down from cancer treatments
...A widow, whose husband was taken from her by a man with a gun
And the list goes on.
Pain. Stinging pain.
How do I live a Christ centered life...how do I show Christ to others, when there is so much pain?
When the heart is burdened and the tears build
When an answer isn't given
When nothing seems to make sense
When facing the dashing of dreams
or the certainty of death...
I want Christ in the center.
I want Him not just near me. I want to be full of Him.
I want to be reminded that I do not walk alone.
I need to remember that nothing can separate me from Him. Nothing.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38-39
AMEN
Related articles
- The Big Questions in Life. (jesusfreak783.wordpress.com)
- What do you do in the midst of deep darkness? (crt010304.wordpress.com)
- God Heals Hurts (guest post) (marykathryntyson.wordpress.com)
- Embrace the Cross (Re-Post) (inchristus.wordpress.com)
- For those who hurt. (practicingjane.wordpress.com)
- Being a Christian (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
- 6-21-11) Why This Pain (late4work.wordpress.com)
