Pain…Pain…Pain…How do some people who live with chronic pain still envision a bright future while many others slowly but surely fall into a dark, depressive resolve? If this question conjures up ideas about having more self-resiliency or self-control or self-determination to counteract the powerful forces of pain, then it’s important to get back to the basics to understand what it means to pursue better living against adversity.
Pain tends to cause each one of us to give up on the pursuit for better living. Its nature tears apart any harmony between our body, soul and spirit. While we consciously try to keep our parts intact in order to soar above the clouds, pain does the opposite, knocking us down from our pursuits toward fulfillment, accomplishment and happiness.
As we already know, pain comes in all forms. We might not be able to see its neurological impulses with the human eye. But we can certainly measure pain medically-speaking, and more importantly, we can see its devastation upon the human condition. Quite frankly, chronic pain seems cruel at times. Yet, this does not mean that we have to give up on living life to its fullest.
To live life abundantly, we must be able to “see” what this means in terms of our expectations. Usually, we pursue the better parts of life by moving toward things which bring us joy. And when pain interferes with our vision, we tend to drop everything in which we place our hope.
But to really live, we must be able to see. When we place our vision on things around us, we capture very limited views about how to live effectively. From this myopic perspective, the balance of the parts is critical for our sense of stability and vitality. So if we live our life based on what we see and how things line up correctly in the scheme of the universe, then pain certainly disrupts order and any sense of self-actualization.
Nonetheless, this is where God begins to renew the mind of man through His perspective of vision. It starts with Himself. God does not require the exact harmony of things for Himself to remain and to live within perfect unity. There are no contradictions within God. His infinite qualities communicate the divine aspect to man through His Son.
We can live because we can see how to live by the example of Christ. Things of pain and brokenness are made whole through belief. We can see hope through Christ. We really can’t find hope through ongoing destructiveness. Our ability to see better living occurs because of belief. It is our belief that allows us to dream and to envision and to hope, which lures us on the road to better living.
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