Enter Into the Pain

Is it not our natural human tendency to look the other way when we see something that could potentially cause us to feel pain? Perhaps it is an innate drive that hearkens back to ages past that causes us to run the other way when we sense a potential threat to our wellbeing. In an age and time when the pursuit of happiness and self-preservation is exalted, there seems to be no space and no time to fraternize with those who are hurting and with those who are marginalized. Why on earth would anyone willingly enter into hard spaces; indeed, it would appear that such interactions are far from reciprocal.

Yet, my time at Lawndale has humbled me in that God has given me the strength and desire to run to the pain and not the other way. It is precisely in the space of suffering that I see Jesus and encounter Him. I don't really know how to fully describe it - I feel as if there is a magnet in my heart and I find myself drawn again and again to the suffering patient. Let me clarify: this is not a scenario that delineates between me and the "other" but rather I, too, am the suffering patient.

There is Kingdom beauty in suffering. Yes, Jesus himself entered into the folds of gritty humanity and became the ultimate version of the suffering patient. He took on all symptoms of brokenness and bore it mercifully. As a person who strives to love Jesus and to live each day for Him and for His glory, I realize that suffering is inevitable. I also realize that suffering is not the end in and of itself but that it is fertile ground upon which hope can start to take root. Indeed, it seems that hope is an indispensable treasure that Christian physicians can provide to their patients and to those who suffer.