Not Begrudging Cruel and Terrible Life Experiences

Pain may not be necessary for growth but pain is so often growth’s change agent.

We want to know if there is meaning in pain; if what we suffer will have a purpose.

If there’s no purpose there is the experience of despair which precedes exhaustion.

Suffering is one thing but suffering with rejection adds a layer of complicated grief.

What is terrible isn’t necessarily cruel and what is cruel isn’t necessarily terrible.

If what we go through is cruel and terrible we will need a double helping of hope.

Faith in situations of pain doesn’t seem anything like heroism; it’s survival.

Seasons of pain are repetitive enough to make us sick inside. Too much déjà vu!

Déjà vu (literally, “already seen”) is okay when it involves pleasure, but not pain.

Although, I often wonder if we can be taught anything of real value overnight.

“God won’t waste your pain” may sound like a cliché but it represents reality.

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What we feel when we’re in agony shrinks hope at light speed; confidence plummets.

Anguish is an antecedent to depression; a person’s response to a vacuum of joy.

Sorrow haunts and it produces anxiety-generating torment that lurks every moment.

Loneliness is the emotion we’re left with when pain visits only our person.

Others may feel it but they feel something different. Feeling isolated is inevitable.

A shared grief tears us apart if we aren’t unified in the first place.

But sometimes a shared grief halves the distress.

Pain restores the sentiment of our sensibilities. Priorities are quickly reordered.

Elements of loss are relived without a moment’s notice. Pray for poise.

Life never remains the same for long, though terrible and cruel times are too long.

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Turning for home in a moment’s hopeful encouragement: memorise the feeling.

Moments of salient hopefulness of a fresh vision revive strength enough for faith.

Forgiving lapses into despair, the soul sips and feeds for health.

A short memory is helpful in forgiving and forgetting. Why recall bitterness?

Being distressed has no relation to time. Any moment we can be lifted out.

Faith in God will get us through anything so long as we don’t ultimately give up.

Cruel and terrible life experiences become part of the richer tapestry of our lives.

Someone, some day, will envy us for having such life experience.

When we overcome in Jesus’ name, we become more tolerantly humble.

Less daunted about life, there are a myriad of blessings in learning how to endure.

© 2015 S. J. Wickham.