Reflection of the Week - 15th October 2024

By Henri Nouwen

Posted Oct 15, 2024 in Faith

Befriend Your Pain

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ 2 Corinthians 12: 8, 9 (NIV)

I want to say to you that most of our brokenness cannot be simply taken away. It’s there. And the deepest pain that you and I suffer is often the pain that stays with us all our lives. It cannot be simply solved, fixed, done away with … What are we then told to do with that pain, with that brokenness, that anguish, that agony that continually rises up in our heart? We are called to embrace it, to befriend it. To not just push it away … to walk right over it, to ignore it. No, to embrace it, to befriend it, and say that is my pain and I claim my pain as the way God is willing to show me his love.

Reference

Henri Nouwen, Befriend Your Pain - Henri Nouwen.

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