Embrace the Pain

Pain is the common denominator of the 21st century. This pain is a result of loss, abuse, abandonment, rejection, and even self-inflicted wounds. What do we do with this pain? How do you get from a painful past to a peaceful present? Henri Nouwen writes about embracing the pain. He writes: "Here a completely new way of living is revealed. It is the way in which pain can be embraced, not out of a desire to suffer, but in the knowledge that something new will be born in the pain. Jesus calls our pains "labor pains." He says: "A women in childbirth suffers because her time has come; but when she has given birth to the child, she forgets the suffering in her joy that a human being has been born into the world."