Hurt

"I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain". ~ Charles Spurgeon

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed

‭‭Psalms ‭34:18

I am not very old, but I know a thing or two about pain. I know about being hurt. I, am double jointed. There are two types of double jointed people, ones whose limbs fall out of the sockets at will, can be placed back in the spot they were originally designed to be, with minimal damage. I, am not one of those people. I unfortunately am one of the opposite double jointed individuals whose joints do still pop in and out of the socket at will, however they return to their original state with such force and vigour that they cause subsequent damage to the surrounding areas. This my friends is how I fractured my elbow swimming. Yes you read correctly, SWIMMING. Although this causes me immense pain and hurts indescribably, three or four days of rest and an (un)limited supply of painkillers usually has me right again.

However I know in life it's not that simple, so many of us have experienced pain and hurt too intense to be solved by rest and painkillers. Why do we experience such pain? Why if Jesus is as close to us as He says He is do we have to go through such intense tragedy? You'll be far fetched even to find the most decorated theologian that could give you a complete answer. But my answer? Unfortunately our world is broken, it's hurting itself. The very place where we take habituation is brokenhearted, our world is crushed. And because at least for now, we live in it, we too are subject to small fractions of that hurt also.

Look at it this way, you're walking on the street and it's pouring with rain. You have your umbrella, you have your boots, you have your rain coat, you are doing everything to protect yourself from the rain that is falling, and you're doing a pretty good job of it. But you still get soaked by an oncoming car driving through a massive puddle. It's not your fault, it's nothing to do with you, however the puddle was formed as a consequence of the rain, and you just being outside meant that you too were subject to any subsequent events that take place because of that rain.

It's the same with the world that we live in. A world that is so hurt, will naturally hurt us. So what do we do in the mean time? Just live in pain? Walk through life terrified of the next time we will be hurt? Absolutely not. Psalm 34:18 says,

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed"

And we have every reason to take all the comfort that is so strongly suggested in this scripture. Yes we will have to go through pain, we will have to be hurt (even Jesus was not above this) but we have the certain hope that our God moves closer to us when we are brokenhearted and comes to our rescue when we are feeling crushed. This in a nutshell means we aren't alone. And we don't have to walk through the pains and hurt of life like we are.

Instead, because of how good God is, we know that good will always come out of any hurtful or painful situation we face, because that's what He promised. (Romans 8:28)

"I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain". ~ Charles Spurgeon

If you're hurting now, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that you got caught up in the inevitable hurts that come with this life, I'm am so sorry that you're hurting. But if I can, I want to encourage you, our God is so good. In the mist of this indescribable pain, He is right there. Looking to draw close to you, looking to rescue you, I promise you He's right there, even if it doesn't feel like He is. So my love, let it hurt, let it bleed, let it heal and let it go. The pains of this life are temporary, but the love of a perfect father, is eternal.

Agape x