Pain's Other Name and the Gifts She Brings with Her

I will conclude this small series about the unwanted guest named Pain (part 1, part 2, part 3) by sharing a few of the unexpected gifts that have come along with Pain when she is hosted well. Like the child Much Afraid of Hinds Feet in High Places, we need a lot of help to scale the mountain that takes us to the kingdom where Love rules; her strong helpers were Sorrow and Suffering. The delightful surprise later on in the story is that it turned out that Sorrow and Suffering's real names were Peace and Joy!

I like to say that my visitor, Pain, has another name that I'm discovering, and that is Grace. An outstanding feature of Grace is that she is fully focused on the present, on today. She has all that I need for today, but when I start to focus my attention on tomorrow and fret about how things might be then, she feels neglected and steps aside, making room for Fear to step up and intimidate me.

Grace is about living today as fully as possible, and one of the beautiful things about her is that she has many good gifts that are helping me make the most of each day, one day at a time. Here are a few:

• Dependence - although undesired at times, the gift of Dependence is deepening community for me. I need the friends and family who kindly tend to my needs in a variety of ways, whereas before I could do most of it for myself.
• Expansion - this gift is widening my community. In my case, the many and regular trips to physical therapy and to the YMCA pool for exercise have given me a whole new and different set of friends and acquaintances that I treasure now, people such as Alyssa, Abe, Layla, Natalie, Sadiq, Willie, Herb, Jessica, etc., who I would never have met without Pain's presence in my life.
• Empathy-Solidarity - this has been another big gift which has opened my eyes in much greater ways to see and identify with others who suffer. One experience that all humans have in common is a visit from Pain. The gift of Empathy-Solidarity is enabling me to move past the tendency to categorize people and instead see a person to comfort and identify with; in turn, I find myself being comforted and strengthened.
• Enlargement - a lot like Empathy, this gift is making my heart more spacious, which is a lifelong prayer of mine. I desire to have a heart like God's all-encompassing, inclusive heart that embraces all people no matter their race or gender or status or religion, and this gift of Grace is helping.

These are a few of Grace's gifts. There are more but this will suffice. I can't help but think of the One who because of His intimate acquaintance with pain and full solidarity with all humans, was given gifts of grace to give to humans. May His voluntary experience of pain and solidarity with you make your visit from Pain, not only bearable, but filled with gifts of grace. To Jesus be thanks and praise!