“God’s Fiery Key to Ministry”
Dear writer, I hope you had a fantastic week and grabbed the opportunity to explore how your experience with God has shaped your unique perspective and expression! Today, we’re going to look at another key ingredient that shapes our voice. That key is pain.
You see, writer, some of life’s most formative experiences are actually the most painful ones. It’s often those terrible and trying times that leave an indelible mark on our soul. But here’s the thing: we get to choose whether that mark is a good or a bad one. We get to choose whether our pain becomes simply a sad chapter in our lives or a powerful testimony of God’s supernatural grace and transformation.
But before we dive in, let’s take a look at some others whose life and voice was dramatically shaped by pain.
Pain in History
Horatio Pafford is a stunning example of a man whose voice was shaped by pain. A wealthy businessman and devout Christian, Pafford’s life was turned upside down by a series of tragedies culminating in the deaths of his young daughters when the ship they and their mother were taking from America to England capsized in the Atlantic Ocean. As Pafford sailed to meet his grieving wife in England, the captain of his ship pointed out the spot where Pafford’s daughters had drowned. In that moment, Pafford’s pain and theology collided in a breathtaking testimony as he penned the world-renowned verses of the hymn “It Is Well.”
You see, writer, sometimes our pain leads us to a deeper insight of God’s person and presence in the middle of all that’s gone wrong. Pafford’s verses of peace beyond understanding and hope beyond despair have strengthened and restored countless grieving souls since. Even more, Pafford and his wife began to serve the needy, poor, and sick in Israel and took in many abandoned children to live with their family. Where the enemy came to kill, steal, and destroy, Paffored allowed God to leverage his pain to multiply life instead.
Pain in the Bible
Jeremiah is another great example of a man whose voice was shaped by pain. Known as the weeping prophet, Jeremiah wept not only over Israel’s sin but also over their cruel treatment toward him. In time, that pain drove resentment deep into Jeremiah’s heart, and for seven years he refused to deliver the word of God to the people. Eventually, the pain of bottling up God’s words overcame Jeremiah’s own bitterness, and he began to speak more boldly than ever, demonstrating God’s great faithfulness even in judgment towards His faithless people.
You see, writer, here’s the thing. Some pains spring from sin, sickness and death in our lives. And sometimes, our pains sprout from a burden borne of love for others who are suffering. In either case, every pain is an opportunity to draw close to the heart of God and choose to let Him expand our hearts with His or to let self-pity shrink them.
Pain in Life
One painful event that shaped my voice was when a pastor disinvited me from their church. For some time, I had been struggling with legalism, and when I entered their congregation, I could tell the leader was “discerning” something about me that she didn’t like. The hard thing was that I was discerning similar things in myself, and in my immaturity, her critical eye only increased the difficultly of overcoming what hindered me. But here’s the interesting thing…
Later, in my own church, when a young man arrived with some disturbing tendencies, I remembered the critical approach that had sent me spinning. Instead of distancing myself, I was warm and cordial with the young man and fasted and prayed with my husband for God to work on the young man’s behalf. Shortly afterward, the young man began to proactively seek the mentorship of elders in the congregation and began to grow rapidly. He grew unhindered to have a powerful Christian walk, because God had used pain to create sensitivity toward a young believer’s needs. If I had not experienced rejection myself, I have no doubt I would have been the one serving up rejection.
Pain in Your Life
You see, writer, we all have pain in life. That pain can either turn us in on ourselves or can throw open the doors of life and usher us into a whole new perspective of God’s heart for us and for others in ways we never imagined. Because here’s the other thing…
Jesus himself was a man of sorrows and learned obedience through what he suffered. Hebrews says He was able to become a compassionate high priest because He shared in our frailty. And when we trust God with our pains and walk through them with Him leaning into His word, there are few things that can open our eyes to the world, to others, and to God in the same way. Let me show you…
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- Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. – Psalm 68:19
- Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. – Galatians 6:2
- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
- Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. – Romans 5:3-5
- As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:36-39
You see, writer, this is the beautiful thing. As we allow our pains to drive us deeper into God instead of away from Him, that pain transforms us and opens the door for hope. A hope not just for us, but a hope we can extend with confidence and authority to others.
Where to Start with Pain
So are you ready to begin exploring the ways God may be leveraging your pain? Here are some things to keep in mind…
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- Be Honest. Though it may be tempting to ignore pain, it’s important to face our trials, tragedies, and sorrows. God says, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted,” and as we own our disappointments and moments of despair and bring them to Him, we discover these are the moments where healing begins and God’s transformative power is at work.
- Look for God. Spend a little time writing down some of life’s significant pains. Ask the Lord to reveal where He was at work in those times. Ask Him to help you see where He is at work now. Ask Him to reveal how He felt about what happened. Here’s the interesting thing. We forget that the Lord Himself grieves alongside us, even as He did at Lazarus’ tomb before He raised him.
- Note Pains that Grew You. Examine at the pains that have grown you. Those pains God has used to strengthen you often shape a key part of your message as a writer and provide strong clues about who that message is made to reach.
- Note Pains that are Unresolved. Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle unresolved, ongoing pain. And here’s the thing. There is no pain that God wastes. If you are in the middle of something it’s because God knows He can leverage it powerfully for unspeakable good in your life and for His glory. Or we have wounds that were never brought to God. But those pains shape our voice, too. Just like Jeremiah’s wail of anger. Sometimes it’s in our searching and finding that, like Jeremiah, some of the most beautiful works are written. But here’s the thing…
We must come to God with our pains if they are to be redeemed. He only allows what He can work together for a greater good than we could possibly imagine with a testimony that outshines all tragedy. He turns our past pains into trophies of glory that we can share without shame. Trophies that become keys to set others free as well.
Just like Pafford’s pain led to a powerful witness of the peace of God that surpasses understanding. Just like Jeremiah faithfulness in spite of his own hurt demonstrated the unrelenting love of God in the face of Israel’s rebellion. Just like my encounter with rejection enabled me to open a path of grace for others. Because here’s the final thought…
Our lives would be small indeed if we never faced obstacles and pain and found ourselves in need of God. For every pain we encounter, we have the opportunity to encounter the love of the Father in a way that can change us forever—and through us—can transform others as well.
So, I encourage you today to examine life’s pains through a new lens. It is likely in those very spaces that God has a unique gift of life and of Himself to give to you and through you.
#life #pain #KnowHim #EveryWriterWriting
