Connect @ Grace

I don’t know about you, but when I first heard the phrase “Recycling Pain,” I thought to myself that pain is that last thing I’d ever want to recycle. I think people normally feel that way. If you’ve experienced something that hurt, you want to avoid, bury, or drown out anything that reminds you of that hurt. So I was surprised to find that in recovery circles the last of the healing choices is called “Recycling Pain.” Actually it’s not a new concept; it’s just a new way of naming or thinking about hard things. The Bible says it this way, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Cor.1:3-4
I’ve known these verses all my life and when we lost our daughter, Joanna, and then our son, Jeremy, I knew that probably at some time I would have the “opportunity” to comfort someone who had lost a child with the comfort I had received from God and others. I didn’t really think of this as God using my pain to give me a ministry to others, but that’s what it has become. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with grieving parents and the opportunity to share with them the comfort that I have received from my Heavenly Father. Had I not actually gone through the loss of my children, I would not have had the right to speak about God’s comfort in this circumstance. Now I need you to understand that I never go looking for hard things to happen in my life so I can have a new ministry. I was an unusual kid in that I wanted to learn from other peoples mistakes so I could avoid pain. But I’ve learned that in this life you can’t avoid pain and trouble, so my new goal is to cooperate with God to see how much good can come out of my pain.
One final thing I’ve learned about recycling pain is that the people you share with get hope because of your example and in the sharing you get healing because that’s how God made us. The worst thing about pain and loss is to feel that it’s pointless. Recycling pain gives God the opportunity to redeem even your most difficult experiences.
Jan

A short while back on October 1st – 5th I spent 5 days in the mountains just outside of Colorado Springs.  This was for a Youth Minister’s retreat called Wilderness, with the goal that we come back better men, husbands, and youth minister’s.  It was incredible.  I was blessed by a lot of things that week.  God.  My small group.  My mentor.  My surroundings.  Here is a small bit that I wrote in my Journal on Friday Morning:

I’ve never been an outdoors-man.  I don’t love it.  I think I just like the idea of it.  It just has a glorified stigma about it, for me.  I love the view from my cabin.  It was unbelievable this morning.  God has done some petty magnificent stuff outside of Indiana.  This place is beautiful.  What is it about your surroundings that change your mood and outlook?  God is no less in the cornfields of Indiana than he is in the mountains of Colorado.  Maybe it’s because I’m looking for Him more here.  Maybe that’s my problem at home. 

The five days I spent there refreshed, relaxed, and recharged me.  I’d be lying if I said I came back a different person.  But I don’t think I’d be lying if I told you I came back a little more like what God called me to be.  That’s the thing.  Sometimes we can’t see who God is calling us to be, if we don’t remove ourselves from the busyness of life.  I’m way more likely to see God working here if I’d just take the time to look around a little more – to pause.

What’s God doing that’s just passing you by like everything else in your life?  Do you need to take some time to slow down, pause, and see God’s hand at work in your life?  You’ll never know if you don’t try it out, and from my short experience God never disappoints.

-Jonathon Mitchell