Making Sense of Suffering

Then disappointment said to me, “Let us journey on our way together.” Leading with a limp. To know disappointment, so that I might be a blessing to others. This brings the most glory to God.
I embrace my disappointment as my teacher on my journey toward God. God transforms disappointment into His Face. And Disappointment comes and wrestles with me until I allow the death of this dream.
I will not let you go unless you bless me. I shall now be called “wounded healer.” The wound I have endured at Disappointment’s hand has made me whole. And Disappointment blessed me.
Wounded Healer. Bringing a message to a world in need of all that I have learned.
Embrace the pain, without becoming a martyr. Making meaning of the pain.

Joy emerges from pain well attended.
We naturally care more about others when we have been to the bottom of our own wells. We are drawn to alleviate suffering for others.
Intimacy with God is more possible as a result of pain and suffering than from almost any other life experience.
I can live with pain and at the same time experience joy, good will and intimacy with God.
Intimacy with God transforms suffering. Reclaims suffering. Redefines suffering.

Bringing forth a new part of myself that becomes a gift to others. Vulnerability, transparency, expectancy, watchfulness.
Entering this deep place inside is where Christ is. Learn who I am. Learn who God is.
Even when I thought God was gone, I could hear movements around me in the dark.
In my pain, in my core, the depth of myself is the light that illuminates the darkness. In the stillness. The waiting. The inner dance.
I did not intentionally choose suffering, it chose me. To grow me toward my True Self. For my own sake and for the sake of others.
In my suffering there is a dying and a rising that becomes a new source of hope.

Our human experience of suffering takes us into the depths of our humanness and to the outer edge of our faith, bringing us face to face with God.
Our understanding of God is revealed, challenged or confirmed most dramatically in times of pain.
God suffers along with us. Showing us only the next step, for that is all we need to know.
The deepest lessons the heart has to deliver to us become accessible only when it is ruptured.
Intimacy does not eliminate the awesomeness of God but incorporates it.

If God appears to not be doing what I want, then things are likely not my true heart’s desire. God’s will is always identical to the deepest desires of my heart.
Eventually I yield myself to God and it becomes bearable.
“Lord, I had heard of you only by hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” Job 42:5.
So much of suffering is unwillingness to let go.
The deeper the pain, the more potential to feel God’s presence.
The losses we suffer are a necessary part of the developmental process.