What Pain Cannot Tell You
Listening For Love In The Loss
"You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." — Jeremiah 29:13
God uses our losses as holy sandpaper—refining, strengthening, preparing. Nothing is wasted. — Mark B. Weaver
When Life Hurts
Pain has a way of getting our attention.
Loss can slow us down enough to notice things we once hurried past. A relationship changes, someone we love is no longer there, a dream doesn't unfold the way we hoped, or life simply takes a turn we never expected.
I've heard it said many times that God doesn't waste our pain.
I believe that's true, but I've also learned that pain can be wasted when it becomes the only voice we're listening to.
Another Voice
Jeremiah gives us a beautiful invitation: “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”
Pain may be what gets our attention, but it doesn't have to become our teacher.
In the middle of loss, Abba keeps drawing our hearts toward His, where we begin hearing something pain could never tell us on its own.
We are still loved. We are still held. We are still walking with the One who has never left us.
Holy Sandpaper
I've come to think of some losses as holy sandpaper. Sandpaper doesn't create the beauty within the wood; it gently removes what keeps that beauty from being seen.
Loss has done that in my life. It has exposed places where I was holding too tightly, depending on things that couldn't sustain me, or overlooking gifts I thought would always be there.
Abba hasn't used pain to punish me. He has met me within it, tenderly revealing what was already true about His heart and His love.
Nothing Wasted
I would never tell someone to be thankful for their pain. Some losses hurt deeply, and love gives us room to grieve them.
But I have learned to listen for another voice while I'm hurting.
Pain tells me what I've lost; Abba reminds me of the Love I can never lose.
As I turn toward Him, even the hardest places of my story can become places where I know His heart more deeply.
Nothing has to be wasted when Love meets us there.
Reflection
What voice has my pain been speaking to me?
Where might Abba be meeting me in this season?
What is His love revealing that my pain alone could never tell me?
Prayer
Abba Father, meet me tenderly in every loss and help me hear Your love above every other voice. Amen.