Pain is a Blessing
by Liz Reehle
Depression stands unequivocally at the forefront of the business of tricking the mind. While under its influence, every doubt creeps easily into thought and every manner of despair plagues all ideation. The oppression can reach the point that no consideration or ponderance can exist independently of those incessant naggings which hold that all is worthless, our strength is spent, and darkness will inevitably fall.
Against such a mental foray, one must employ a lofty strategy:
Remembrance. When every dark and creeping thing surges through thy thoughts and threatens to tear down every last shred of hope, respond by reaching into the expanses of Light which have leaked through the Heavens and into the Past.
Remember the Word of the Lord and who He says you are: loved, cherished, redeemed. Those are common words with very uncommon meaning. It is one thing to read them, but another entirely to apprehend them.
Loved.
Cherished.
Redeemed.
He Loves you. He gave all for you. Yahweh gave up his Throne to live a peasant’s life and to die a traitor’s death—for you. He gave up separation from evil to face it in its abhorrent, detestable face, so that He might defeat it and free you.
Yes, He has freed you. Redeemed you.
So many voices overpower the thoughts of the soldier against depression—so many lies telling us that we will never have worth, we will never get it right, that we have to be better. Every mistake we make is detrimental. Every sour look we receive is a cut to the heart. But freedom from that has already been bought.
Oh, how sweet the thought that freedom reigns.
In a way, we who face depression are fortunate. Even as I write those words, they seem sour to my mind. How can something so detestable reap any form of benefit? But we who face the constant self-accusation that we have failed and that we have no worth, are in a unique position to apprehend Grace.
Men cannot truly understand Grace until they grasp the detestable nature of themselves. And, Lord knows, we have faced the detestable nature of ourselves. Most of the time, we hate ourselves.
The world says to “be yourself,” and to “love yourself.” But those of us who have been to the pits of the human soul know better. Our hearts are wretched, evil things. And they deserve every ounce of our hatred.
But.
But.
O’er the crest of Calvary, the Son rises with redemption.
We have tried so—hard to be better—to be worthy.
Stop trying!
You can’t be better; you cannot attain worth for yourself. If you hate yourself, you can let yourself die.
And rise again with Christ.
You can’t be better. But you can be like Christ.
You can’t attain worth. He has already given it to you.
Remember what He says of you.
Remember, too, what He has done for you.
Yes, He has sacrificed. He has died and descended and Risen.
But His blessings are not limited to that—no, not even to your resurrection.
Look at your life—oh, the blessings He has poured out. Remember what He has brought you through and what He has provided. Depression tries to cloud the mind with only the devastating points of life.
But where tragedy lies, joy dawns. He heals what is broken. He brings together where others tear apart.
Remember the devastation, but also scour the darkness for the hand of God. He was with you, I promise He was with you. Do not let the mind meditate on the loss and the pain without seeing the blessings that came with them.
Yes, pain can be a blessing!
