Harvesting a Beautiful Life After the Seed of Pain

An excerpt from the book, The Prodigy of the Pearl

Tentative Release Date: Spring 2018

The Purpose of Pain

It is a mysterious thing. Yes, mysterious indeed — this unwelcome invader called pain that haunts our lives. Yet it is a very good indicator that something is wrong. In this, it serves us very well according to its designated purpose.

We were not created to live in pain. We were created to live in peace. God created pain to alert us to danger and bring an acute awareness to the area of suffering and affliction — so we may be made whole. We can endure physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain. Pain is a direct and accurate indicator that a state of unrest, affliction, oppression, injury or disease is present.

The Power of Pain

As a nurse I deal with patients who are in pain every day. Each person’s pain is different, and each type of pain has a different origin. There are different thresholds for pain which indicate how much a particular individual is able to bear, and there are different types of pain receptors (physically). However, very seldom do any of us understand the pain we endure at the time it makes an entry into our lives. Every individual who has ever lived and died has endured some measure of pain in their own right. No one can diminish that, belittle it, or regard it as trite. Pain is a very individual and unique plague for each person who experiences it. Pain is very much an intimate part of the human quandary. It comes in many forms (emotional, mental, physical, etc.); has many types (deep, consuming, debilitating, fleeting, etc.); and it has many origins (circumstantial, relational, personal, etc.). There is pain that is unjustly inflicted upon us. We are oppressed, burdened, and abused. There is pain that comes into our lives by that of unnatural and untimely loss. And there is pain we inflict upon ourselves either ignorantly or at will. There is pain that often comes to us through unfortunate events and the circumstances surrounding us to which no one can be blamed.

Pain is indeed a very real, complex, and intimate part of life.

The Potential of Pain

Give pain any label you like. Regardless, none of us are exempt. What we do with our pain, therefore, and how we respond is the key that unlocks the potential we have toward wholeness. We can either allow it to destroy us; or we can allow it to make us stronger, teaching us deeper truths. Pain can even hold the power to transform us into individuals we would otherwise never know or perhaps become: individuals who are exceptionally rich in character, gratitude, and grace. There are qualities and virtues that pain can gift us such as compassion, wisdom, depth, mercy and loving-kindness (to name a few).

If we can come to some measure of understanding in the purpose of our pain, and respond wisely, we eventually receive the gifts it is able to bestow. How can we have triumph if we are never faced with tragedy? How can we enjoy laughter and lightness of heart if we never know sadness or despair? How can we truly be thankful for pleasure and peace unless we endure… pain?

When it comes to the potential of pain, I believe that God has given us a beautiful parable; and a very real example indeed — one that can afford us such insight and help us redeem our pain. This insight lies within the prodigy of the pearl. Right now, you may be thinking it strange to compare some of life’s most agonizing quests with a rare gem. Yet in His unfathomable wisdom, God often demonstrates some of His greatest mysteries; some of His most prized secrets; some of His most beautiful truths; and very often the very greatest of His glory through the weak and foolish things of this world.

The Prodigy of the Pearl

I invite you to explore the prodigy of the pearl — from Old Testament to New. Explore the rich biography of the pearl afforded through science. I believe that if you will look with me, you will find some of the answers you may be seeking to your own pain—this universal mystery that each one of us are destined to encounter.

I believe you can harvest a beautiful life after the seed of pain. God is well able to redeem your pain if you will allow Him that privilege. Redemption is His specialty. It’s what He loves to do. It’s what He’s so very brilliant at doing.

Christ is able to reveal Himself through your pain, delivering your from it, and transforming you by it. Discover the prodigy of the pearl. There are answers if you are ready to receive them, and there is a harvest of beauty on the other side that awaits you.

Cheers & Shalom,

Image Credit: Hemlin | Pixabay

The pearl is the emblem of Appointed Time Ministries, representing purity, redemption, and wholeness.

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