Your Pain Is Legitimate

I think sometimes in life we question the legitimacy of our pain. We think so hard about the "starving kids in Africa," that we feel illegitimate or selfish when we ourselves are in sorrow. We minimize our suffering, at least with others, as a means to behave "spiritually" in the presence of those we seek to influence.

Today I was reading Hosea 9. In the text Hosea is speaking and seems to indicate that having a miscarriage (v14) is devastating in the lives to those it effects. In the verse, Hosea argues that if God were going to punish a person, miscarriage might be a good route to go. I've witnessed tons of people in my life experience pain. Many times they are righteous people who feel deep heartache over their loss. Often, friends and family fail to relate, simply because the pain is so obscure or unique to that person suffering. People want to help or want to care, but simply cannot because they have never experienced what YOU are going through. Such pain and sorrow is just too deep for anyone to relate. However, God understands. That same God who knows that miscarriage is devastating to God's enemies, also knows how devastating it can be to God's children. So, while pain may seem silly or shallow on one level, God gets it.

Today I write to all of those who feel pain and sorrow and are not living in deepest darkest Africa. I write to those who have food for their bellies but no will to eat. I write those surrounded by friends who are feeling all alone. I write to those who have nice lives, but just enough sorrow in them to feel as if they are drowning. To you I say, "GOD GETS IT." God gets your pain. God gets you. So, it's ok to be honest when you hurt. It's ok to acknowledge the legitimacy of sorrow. Yes, there are still starving children in Africa, whom God loves and whom we need to be concerned. Yet, that doesn't make your pain illegitimate.