Flying through the pain

There are times when I get caught up in stuff. You know, the kind of stuff that drains all of my energy. The kind of stuff that causes me to not want to get out of bed. The kind of stuff that I just don't want to talk about, but can't seem to get to the other side of. During those times I read this poem (when I remember it, since it is not on my bathroom mirror). I generally choose different courses of action. I don't think God will hold that against me. The point is, to do something for someone other than yourself during those dismal minutes, hours, days, months, and heaven forbid, years. The work may not make you feel better, but its fruits will certainly be a positive impact in someone else's life. Isn't that the least you can do? Sometimes flying isn't about us. Sometimes it is just the vehicle to launch something greater.


Live the Pain
By Henri J.M. Nouwen

The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to understand them, better to let them enter into your silence than to talk about them. The choice you face constantly is whether you are taking your wounds to your head or your heart. In your head you can analyze them, find their causes and consequences, and coin words to speak and write about them. But no final healing is likely to come from that source. You need to let your wounds go down to your heart. Then you can live through them and discover that they will not destroy you.

PRAYER

God of wholeness and healing, I know that I am afraid of pain and acutely conscious of being harmed and hurt. Help me avoid my pattern of cause-and-effect, of rationalizing my wounds. Instead, let the soothing oil of your mercy heal my wounds; let me live through the pain and recognize that your joy is truly on the other side. Amen.

ACTION

Pick one of the corporal works of mercy to practice over the next few days. The corporal works of mercy are as follows: To feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit the imprisoned, to shelter the homeless, to visit the sick, to bury the dead.