Your pain is not something to be ashamed of

Your trouble is holy.

Your pain is sacred. As in, it's not that your pain was approved of and sanctioned by God to teach you something, no. Rather your pain isn't a place that banishes holiness, that can't be as sacred as the blissful places, that God isn't in with you.

You are not being punished.
You are not being tested.
You are a human experiencing a life; pain is a part of it.

You are not being punished.
You are not being tested.
This isn't a lesson. 

It is a part of the whole.

And it is holy.

It should not be trivialised or glamorised. Your trouble is not to be used as a trophy or an anchor, by yourself, by others, or by your religion.

Richard Rohr said: 

"All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain. By trying to handle all suffering through willpower, denial, medication, or even therapy, we have forgotten something that should be obvious: we do not handle suffering; suffering handles us in deep and mysterious ways that ironically become the very matrix of life. Suffering—and sometimes awe—has the most power to lead us into genuinely new experiences... In this way, the very worst things have the power to become the very best things. Henceforth, nothing can be a dead-end; everything is capable of new meaning."

Only when we hold our pain with grace and sacredness, can we facilitate healing to enter into it.

Pain that is glamorised or trivialised is pain that is held onto and perpetuated.

Paulo Coelho said:

"What hurts us is what heals us."

Rumi:

"The cure for the pain is in the pain."

In the book of Exodus, a bush was on fire, but it was not consumed, and from it, came the voice and essence of the Divine, and from that voice came direction and purpose, a path and a plan.*

Your pain is not something to be ashamed of, ignored, shoved away, covered over by anything that will numb it for a while.

Your pain is not some test or judgement or punishment sent by God in response to your living and being.

Your pain is not an indictment on who you are and the decisions you've made.

Your pain is part of what makes you human.

Embrace it. Even learn to love it, or maybe a better way to say that is, love yourself in it.

Love it in such a way that it opens and warms and is nourished and heals. Follow your pain all the way through to newness and healing.

Your trouble is a sacred and holy vehicle on your way to growth and wholeness.

The Christian tradition is centred around a moment of pain: Jesus, bleeding to death, violently executed by a foreign military superpower, falsely accused and convicted, betrayed... all the pain and in all the ways centralised in the person many call Saviour.

As he was dying, Jesus said:

"My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

To the afflicted, abandoned, shamed, abused, heartbroken, diseased; to the sinner, to the abuser, to those filled with hate and greed, to those weighed down with worry and fear, to those poisoned and shackled by their situations and choices; to those who have felt the darkness of loneliness and hopelessness; for all the suffering of those before him and those yet to be, Jesus was saying,

"me too…"

He made it holy, seen, known, precious, held, carried, witnessed.

And as with any pain that is held with holiness, it took Jesus somewhere new... that's the path; that's the way.

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain.

Ground yours in holiness. 

Mindful Prompt: What pain are you in? Is it physical? Emotional? Hold it in your heart, and focus all your love and grace and compassion on it. Make it holy. Practice doing so, and you'll find that your relationship with pain will begin to bring you new life.

From my upcoming series, "Ground Yourself In Holiness" this week with a subscription in the App.

Written by Liz Milani.
Instagram: @thepracticeco