Ouch
Ouch, now that is a word that hurts! Well, the word does not really hurt, but when someone says it, you know they have experienced pain. Once, while working on a project, I hit my finger with the hammer. Ouch, I threw the hammer down and grabbed my hand. Then I proceeded to jump and dance as I held my hand and sang ouch, ouch, and ouch.
I had almost stopped working for the day, but I decided to put up one more board. I had the board up and decided to swing the hammer one more time. I should have stopped while I was ahead. I didn’t stop, so my finger turned the color of a grape. It hurt. “Ouch.”
It’s funny how pain works: no one enjoys it, yet we should consider it a gift from God. Just think about it—without pain, what would my hand look like? I might have pounded my fingers into mincemeat without even knowing it. God gives us pain to protect us from ourselves and the dangers of the world. So, in a way, the word “ouch” is truly a wonderful expression!
Pain comes in many forms. The pain I am referring to was the result of a careless accident; it was physical. My finger has healed, but the memory of the incident will remind me to be more careful in the future. We often experience emotional pain, and at times, we also face spiritual pain. Sometimes, all three types of pain can occur at the same time. During those moments, we wish we were like a wounded animal. We want to retreat to a deep, dark cave and curl up to escape the world.
I have felt this pain as a result of being a pastor. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I tried to be a good pastor. Seeking God’s will, all week long I would pray as I prepared the sermon. Then preaching until I had no more energy, I would pour my heart out for the congregation. Only to be pounded by people I thought I could trust, as they would go home and have roast preacher for lunch.
That pain was intense. There have been times when it was physical. My heart would hurt so bad that I was afraid I was having a heart attack. Emotionally, I have faced depression; I have suffered with the loss of appetite and even lost the urge to preach. After all, why preach? No one is listening, or so it seems. Spiritually, I became like Job and wondered why God had turned his back on me.
I know now that pain is my friend. Through it, I learned how to trust God. I also learned how to pray. I thought I already knew those things. Yet, I didn’t. In the last chapter of the book of Job, he says, “I had heard of God with my ears. Now, I have seen Him with my eyes.” In effect he was saying, before I thought I believed but now I know that God is real. Job had finally gotten to the place, where God wanted him to be. And that was the purpose of the pain in his life.
You know we face nothing that Christ did not face. As a pastor, I understood that. When people abandoned me, I knew how Jesus must have felt when people went back from following him. When I was betrayed, I remembered that a disciple betrayed Jesus with a kiss. When I hit my finger with a hammer, I felt intense pain. I knew that it was nothing compared to the nails driven through the hands and feet of my Savior!
So, what should be our course of action? Well, since pain teaches us about Jesus, when we suffer, let us worship Him. Pain will teach you how to pray, be strong, and be wise. So, when you suffer, kneel in prayer, stand in His strength, and depend on His wisdom.
Pain, Ouch! A gift from God! Bringing us from where we are to where we must be if God is going to use us. Count it as all joy to suffer for Christ because He first suffered for you.
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“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Romans 5:1-3, 5 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/rom.5.1-5.NKJV
Douglas & Deborah Huff
From Down Where the Pavement Ends
email-douglas@pavementendsministry.com
Your writing is more than content—it’s connection. It touches something real in people, and that’s powerful.
Wow, Thank you.
I am honored by your words.
God bless!