I don’t know about you, but I always think the trainer is crazy when they try to tell you to “work through the pain”. I mean, hey, if your body is telling you that something hurts, isn’t that supposed to tell you that you need to stop what you’re doing? That was always my thought; until I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.
Working through the pain became working with the pain. Up until that point, I always thought that everyone felt the way I did. Until the flare up that sent me to a Rheumatologist. I have always lived with fatigue, believing that I was just a weakling and that was why I had always been poor in sports. I was one of those children that were always picked last for teams. It was humiliating and embarrassing being the last one to finish track. I was a healthy teenager, not over weight, so why did I have trouble keeping up? Pain.
But we’re talking about physical pain. Many of us also deal with emotional pain. They can be one in the same at times. I’ve had both in my life as have you and everyone. We’re all human, we all have the same problems. But time and again, people convince themselves that their problem is unique, and no one else has suffered like they are suffering.
We are the ultimate masters of our pain, in that we can choose how it will affect us. Either it can be a Blessing or it can a curse that claims our health and our happiness. It is our decision how we deal with the pain, not God. If we choose to be unhappy, we will be unhappy and spread that unhappiness to others in the way that we look and behave. Have you ever known someone, that every time you ask them how they are, you get a diatribe of complaints? Have you ever been that person? If you are honest with yourself, you will know that you have indeed been that person at some point in your life.
Even Blessed Mother Teresa wrote, that at times she felt that God had abandoned her. But she kept these feelings to herself and continued to do the work that she was called by God to do, to serve the poorest of the poor with love. In her later years she suffered from many ailments including heart attacks, but she continued her work until six months before her death in 1997.
I have found myself in this situation from time to time. It kind of sneaks up on me, and one day I hear myself complaining to someone and I am mortified at myself. I turn red when I am embarrassed, I mean hot red , and can feel it out to my ears.
What is pain?
Webster’s Dictionary says this:
1 a : localized physical suffering associated with bodily disorder
(as a disease or an injury)
b : acute mental or emotional distress or suffering : grief
2 a : one that irks or annoys or is otherwise troublesome —often used in such phrases
as pain in the neck
OR: punishment- a : suffering, pain, or loss that serves as retribution
b : a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure
We have our physical pain and suffering from our illnesses, diseases, broken or damaged bodies. We ask God “why is this happening?” St. Teresa of Avila once wrote: “If this is the way You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few!" St. Teresa suffered from many issues from Malaria to Paralysis during her life, but she discovered the power of prayer and shared this with others and wrote prolifically.
Most of the great Saints suffered for years before their final calling to Heaven, but the key to their becoming a Saint was in how they entrusted themselves to God and shared in the Redemption of the world through their suffering.
A Saint might be described as someone who has suffered long, but suffered well. I mean they took their suffering and used it to Glorify God.
One example of suffering is the pain that comes from being wrongly accused. Kitty Cleveland, the singing missionary with the voice of an Angel, tells of her father Carl, who was accused and convicted, wrongly, of political corruption in the state of Louisiana. A reading from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
played a part in their 10 year struggle to clear her fathers name.
Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in
the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being
too elated.
Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might
leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made
perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in
order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.
Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships,
persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then
I am strong.
The Lighthouse Catholic Media has her story on a CD, God will Provide
Kitty's story touched my soul and her music soothes my soul.
Also Jeff Cavins, a renowned Catholic Author, and star of EWTN, tells a story of his suffering when he had neck surgery on his C67 vertebrae, on a CD titled "15 Things to Do in the Midst of Suffering" and he talks about ways to deal with your pain, rather than surrender to it.
He asks us what does it mean to "Offer it up?" People say "just offer it up" all the time but what does it truly mean to "offer it up?"
For me, it was surrendering to Jesus, and telling him "I trust in you." The peace of mind that comes from surrendering your will to God's Will, is wonderful. When we truly turn over our suffering to Christ, we are releasing that pain and giving it to Him. We are offering our pain to Jesus to share in His suffering on the Cross. We become purified in our pain!
22 For to this you have been called, because Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his
footsteps.
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
23 When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he
suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who
judges justly.
Pain is different for everyone, and we must find ways to get through it. If we learn to call on Christ and give him our pain in order that he may make good from it, we can also learn to smile through that pain. It isn't easy, we all are not like Job, who suffered through so many losses and never lost his faith.
"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, Blessed be the Name of the Lord!"(Job 1:21)
So wash your face, ladies put on some makeup, put on nice clothes, and most importantly, put on your smile. For Jesus told us:
16 “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18 so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your
Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you."Matthew 6:16-18
We will talk more on this topic at a later date.
Blessings!
The Catholic Lady©
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