Understanding Pain

This morning while driving around I heard the song "Held" by Natalie Grant was #1 on the CCM Top 20 this week. This is a song that struck a chord within me from the first time I heard it. Here is a portion of the lyrics:

Who told us we’d be rescued?
What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares?
We’re asking why this happens
To us who have died to live? It’s unfair.

Chorus:
This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we’d be held.

This hand is bitterness.
We want to taste it, let the hatred numb our sorrow.
The wise hands opens slowly to lilies of the valley and tomorrow.

I think for us, as followers of Christ, understanding pain in our lives is an essential element of understanding God and knowing Him. I used to think that if He loved me, He would protect me from pain. Now I know that because He loves me, He holds me close in the midst of pain. When we discover that He is more real than our pain and trouble, this discovery is the opening of our spiritual eyes.

If we are to grow through and past the pain in our lives, we will have to wrestle through the hurt and anger until we find a place of healing and acceptance. Then as Latinaliz said, we...

can eventually look back on the pain and say "even though I hated it, even though it felt horrible...I see how God turned the situation around for good".

Now understand, it is not saying that God healed if that is what you prayed for. Or someone didn't die when you were praying for that. Or a husband/wife came back if you were praying for that.

No! It is realizing that if it were not for the grace of God while you were in your dark time, you would not have made it. If it were not for those dark periods, you would not be who you are today.