The Truth is in the Suffering - When Pain and the Soul Meets
How are you? "Fine - yet, I'm tired. Tired but not the kind of tired that comes from not getting enough sleep. I'm tired of trying, I'm tired of being let down, I'm tired of faking happiness, I'm tired of being sad, I give up!"
Have you ever felt this way? Has this conversation ever crossed your lips? Have these types of feelings caused you any type of pain? It certainly has come across my mind, my mouth, in my actions, and has caused me pain.
What is pain? Here's how I define pain:
a source of discomfort
that which is caused when something unpleasant unexpectedly happens
that thing that breaks your normal way of living
the unexpected that knocks you off your feet.
You see pain doesn't have to be associated with hitting your toe on the end of the coffee table, or the pain you get when you touch the surface of a hot stove. It's not necessarily the pain you get when you get a paper cut or from that hangnail that just won’t go away. Pain comes in different forms. The pain I'm talking about today is the pain of the SOUL. That pain that still remains in our lives because we failed to observe where the pain was really coming from.
In my study of the book, Care of the Soul by John Moore, I'm learning that we should work with what is rather than with what we wished were there. And why is this? Well, I believe it's more difficult to find our way through the world than to find our way beyond the world. You see to go beyond something means you bypass the stuff in the middle. When we're on our journey through the world/life, it’s more difficult because we have to observe what's going on in our world... which I've found to be one of the hardest things for most of us to do.
We want to sidestep negative moods and emotions and our bad life choices and unhealthy habits. But we cannot overlook any of those things when we're dealing with the pain and the care of the SOUL. We have to observe the SOUL as it is in order to deal with the PAIN it's in.
Religion can have a way of making us believe that salvation will take away the PAIN, but on the contrary my friend; when PAIN and the SOUL meets, there is now an awareness that wasn't there before. When we begin to do our spiritual work, we will find a deeper respect for what is actually going on in our lives. If we try to avoid the realities that life brings, the mistakes and failures, we move beyond the ability to deal with the SOUL. You have to face it head on..you can't run or hide from it.
How do we avoid those things in life that has or is causing us PAIN on our way to caring for our SOUL? Is it okay to give room for the horrible symptoms and hopeless compulsions we have? Many of which causes pain in our lives?
It is our nature to try an alleviate any pain when caring for a loved one. You know those "Intervention" shows...the ones that force people into a rehabilitation facility for their own good. Many go because they feel they have no choice, and some go because they really want to get better. But the most common thing is... many are not ready to deal with the reality of their PAIN. Because dealing with the PAIN will only cause more pain... at least that's what most think.
Sometimes it's good to just submit to the pain and let the healing begin.
When I realized I was dealing with Bulimia, I had to do my SOUL work in order to get better. That work was HARD. It revealed something in me that I wasn't too proud of. You see What my PAIN revealed to my SOUL was rejection, abandonment, loneliness, low-self esteem, and a loss of identity.
This PAIN manifested through Bulimia (eating disorder) and sexual promiscuity (fornication and adultery). I had to deal with many things from my childhood..the thoughts I had about my body, the relationship or the lack of relationship I had with my father and my feelings towards him. It took me from 2001 to 2006 to acknowledge that I had a problem. It wasn't until I began my journey to a smile and began my spiritual work, I was able to walk in my truth and began caring for my SOUL.
It won’t be easy but it can be done. I didn't think I would ever be able to talk about what I've been through without feeling ashamed. Today, I'm free to talk about it ALL. My life is an open book. I have been set free by the Blood of the Lamb and the words of my testimony.
"If we can see the story we are in when we fall into our various compulsive behaviors and moods that cause us pain, then we might know how to move through them more freely and with less distress." @Thomas Moore
When PAIN meets the SOUL, the healing will reveal truth and freedom. PAIN will allow the SOUL to do what it does best... soothe the broken heart and allows truth to whip away all guilt and shame. There's no shame in the PAIN when the SOUL speaks for you.
"The life of the SOUL is continual, going over and over of the materials of life"... Keep telling your story, your SOUL is listening.
Remember to
Find Peace Within,
Lisa L. Dalton