Holy Spirit, help me notice my pain turning into joy ...

 
John 16, 16-20
 
Once and for all time Jesus demonstrated that pain does not have the final word.  Stretching his arms out wide to humanity and ultimately to heaven, our Lord consciously lived and prayed through the physical pain of torture and crucifixion, a mental anguish of coming to terms with the reality of human sin, and the deep spiritual pain of rejection and seeming abandonment.  But by remaining faithful to God through all the pain and hurt that hatred, bitterness, disconnection and hell itself could throw at him, Jesus noted with his body how (faith-full) pain inevitably gives way to (surprising) joy. This is what Jesus prefigured for the disciples when he spoke to them before his passion. This is what Jesus speaks to us as we face down the physical, emotional and spiritual pains of our lives.  What “Unbearable” pain is in my life?  Through its waves of anguish will I the joy of Christ-like resurrection that reaches far beyond the lowest chambers of hell?  Holy Spirit, help me notice my pain turning into joy.   
                                                                  
 O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things. (Psalm 98:1)
                                                                                                                
Joy is never in our power and Pleasure often is. .. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of man, and His compulsion is our liberation.
CS  Lewis, Suprised by Joy                                         
 
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Soli ad gloriam Dei