I’m not a big fan of the idea that growth can come from pain; not even necessarily the fact that pain doesn’t cause growth. Or maybe it’s just the pain part of it. No one really likes the painful stuff of life. I can, however, tolerate the growth stuff. We can experience pain of the body – physical pain. The pain from injuries or just the process of aging. And then there is the pain of the heart. The things that cause us to fear something, or is painful enough that it brings us to tears because of the loneliness and isolation.  

Facing a broken bone at any age is rough. It can also be debilitating and frustrating beyond belief. Much like the debilitating feeling from a broken bone, pain from aging can be something that leaves you feeling less than the person you once were. Or worse, it leaves you wondering why you’re even around. A broken heart is something that is experienced when disappointment results from unmet expectations, from the person you deeply care about. This second kind of pain is one that is so difficult to understand because it is hard to explain. We risk the potential of feeling this kind of pain when we dare to love someone so much. It’s not guaranteed to happen to all of us, but it does happen far too often.  

In our Gospel from Mark this past Sunday, we hear a familiar story of Jesus reminding the disciples that he is going to suffer and die. One of his own, Peter, gets visibly and verbally upset and confronts Jesus about what he just heard. Jesus then rebukes him. The heartache Peter experiences from unmet expectations is real and is visceral. Some of us have experienced this with the passing of aging parents or family members.  

The growth that can come from this experience is not that the grief gets forgotten, no. It comes from the ability to move through the grief because there is a knowledge of hope. This is what Jesus tried to offered Peter and the disciples, not just a message of his death, but also of his resurrection. The growth aspect is that of being able to move through the grief and into an appreciation for the hope on the other side of this life. The invitation is a difficult one…it is to begin to see hope on the other side of pain. As Jesus would say, to focus on divine things.  

from The Intersection,

Pastor Brian

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Image - Pain  - https://www.dashhouse.com/2016118ministry-pain/

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