Spiritual Fitness & Living With Chronic Pain

Are you wishing for a healing miracle? At one time or another, I’m sure many people have who suffer from physical hardship.

Typically our culture flinches at the hint of suffering because we really don’t understand it. It seems longer than it really is because there appears to be no discernable value in it. At best, suffering seems inhumane. In fact, if onlookers were to watch someone in horrific pain without providing some kind of benevolence, this cowardly act in itself might be considered as a form of depravity. Humanly speaking and simply put, people in general consider suffering as cruelty.

So the idea of wishing for a healing miracle is not far-fetched for many who comprise our culture. When we observe great suffering, some of our inclinations are to immediately get angry with God, blaming His failure to intervene when we think it is appropriate. God is neither unsympathetic nor impotent when discussing miracles. Even though we, as well as others, might make prayerful appeals against suffering, this does not mean that painful afflictions are automatically wiped out from the scheme of life.

Personally, I believe people can receive instantaneous, miraculous healing from prayer or antidotal treatment. I’ve seen this actually occur. In fact, testimonies about these wonderful miracles occur daily, especially on an international scale, whether considering medical or faith-based intervention.  However, it is rather presumptuous for us to expect these healing miracles to be the normal measure about God, for it dismisses the infinity about His grace.

Healing miracles come from perfection. And perfection comes from being with God. God’s role is not to relieve suffering or to spare us from it or to serve us with miracles at our beck and call. Through the healing miracle of His Son, Jesus Christ, He gives us the unique opportunity to commune with His Father, uniting finite man into relationship with an infinite God. This is perfection personified, attainable by faith, literally containing eternal, healing miracles about life substantively pertinent to our physical, mental and emotional struggles against suffering.

The world believes that the absence of suffering means glory, being the foundation for healing miracles. Don’t be easily fooled by this scuffling notion. Spiritual truth speaks otherwise. If you really want the dross from suffering to fall off of you, then simply follow God. According to His sovereignty, God does not save us from suffering, especially on our terms, but does always redeem us as His Son also is with us in and through suffering. 

Keep me on your favorites.  Please click onto www.gordonselley.com for more information about living with chronic pain, as well as spiritual healing.

For many, life is simply too busy for real communion with God. Hence, suffering brings life clearly into perspective, causing us to cease worrying about the future and also cancels our efforts to try to rehabilitate the past. In essence, suffering causes us to focus squarely on the present.
 
Instead of always “doing” to get ahead, whether it is personal accomplishment, career enhancement or spiritual approval, suffering has a way of bringing us back down to earth to evaluate our “being” in God.
 
I encourage you to walk thoroughly through suffering, not taking shortcuts or dodging any inevitable outcomes. Regardless of your prognosis, I’ll wager that you discover new beginnings from change. The journey might just allow you to understand yourself better and to re-establish a nourishing relationship with God, built on grace and not upon the work demands of this world.

Keep me on your favorites.  Please click onto www.gordonselley.com for more information about living with chronic pain, as well as spiritual healing.

Sadness has beset our hearts once again. Unsuspectingly and very quickly, our beautiful dog, named Polo, contracted Grade IV Metastatic Carcinoma of the Lungs. Rather than watch her suffer needlessly for an additional few days, she was euthanized on October 29, 2008.  During those last few moments there was a sense of peace, and I believe Polo knew instinctively what had to be done. In the end, she was cooperative about the procedure and essentially relaxed her head within the arms of my wife.  Our whole family loved Polo very much, inclusive of my wife, Cherise, and our two sons, Jake and Kris.
 
I could easily fill volumes of work about the wonder of God as demonstrated by our good friend. The lessons about faithfulness, obedience, curiosity, unselfishness and beauty are countless, just to mention a few. But foremost, Polo epitomized unconditional love, always forgiving quickly and also giving us an insightful view regarding the meaning of lovingkindness. In scripture, the lovingkindness of God translates as “loyal love.” This was so evident with Polo’s keen sense of our needs and her patient tenacity to serve us well. 
 
We aptly said our good-byes on October 29^th, praising and thanking God for this beautiful gift that we enjoyed for the past decade. Personally, I’m very appreciative of the increased quality of life that Polo brought to each one of my family members. It was truly transforming.
 
I’m sure every dog owner has unique and gripping stories about their four-legged friends. And when it comes to their farewells, sadly and empathetically, I know each has experienced horrendous bouts of grief. Our family can surely recognize that we’ve also joined this privileged club. To cope with this kind of grief will be difficult. Yet, and probably with some hiccups along the way, we will move forward, not trying to replace Polo with anything else because she is irreplaceable.
 
We will treasure the precious moments of her in our hearts while trusting God for His nourishing comfort. Only God knows the exact mysteries about life and death. Nonetheless, I do know this. God loves His creation and does not waste any of His priceless resources. His purposeful character is love, which is regenerative and redemptive. Our family will faithfully trust God for His abundant goodness about the fate of our friend. 
 
Tearfully, I say my final good-byes Polo. I love you very much. Thank you for the joy!