Living Well
The Alarming Ministry of Pain
Could your pain be launching you into your purpose?
By Melanie Staggers
In 1994, I endured great
the sound of an alarm
pain. After 13 years of
that could develop us?
marriage and three daughThat our pain is an
ters, my husband announced
alarm that just might
he wanted out. No warnsave our life?
ings. No “obvious” signs
I have often heard that
that a major transition was
people experience
brewing in my marriage.
“great pain” just beNo arguing. No unacfore their appendix
counted money. No unacburst. And, it is only
counted time. No obvious
the pain that reveals
indications.
this serious medical
Unexpectedly, he came
condition. The pain of
home one evening and made
an expectant mother
the big announcement.
indicates that it is time
“I don’t want to be marto give birth. And, as
Melanie Staggers and granddaughter, Ariel and daughters Felecia, Aylesa and Tiara. we all know, chest
ried anymore.”
My marriage ended in
pains are sometimes
that moment. I had no voice in the matter. There is no negotiating with
the sounding of an alarm that your very life is threatened.
the will of another person; you just have to acquiesce to the request--pain
Perhaps, we should re-think how we interpret pain in every area
and all. Within two weeks, he was out of the house. Talk about in
of our lives.
pain.
P
ain is suffering or discomfort caused by an illness
or injury. Pain is that nasty four letter word we all
seek to avoid. Yet, no one can escape it. Many
Christians have wrongfully convinced themselves that pain is
not an element of life that God ever wants us to experience.
We conclude that Jesus paid it all so that we can escape the experience of any discomfort. Physical pain is oftentimes tolerated
much more readily than emotional pain. Emotional pain is typically viewed in the “Christian” arena as a demonic attack that
must be “rebuked’ and avoided.
However, it is the emotional pains of life that develop our
character. It is emotional pains that allow us to “work out our
soul salvation” a.k.a. the sancti