How have I seen God use pain for good in my life?

A couple of week’s ago, I posted something from Fr. Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations that had really struck a chord with me. Today, I want to post another one. This actually dropped into my inbox on Saturday.

I’ve been having a tough time of things with my health recently, as many regular readers of the blog will know. This meditation doesn’t necessarily help me to find a way through what’s happening, but does give me hope that maybe some good can come of it.

How have I seen God use pain for good in my life?

Pain teaches a most counterintuitive thing—that we must go down before we even know what up is. In terms of the ego, most religions teach in some way that all must “die before they die.” Suffering of some sort seems to be the only thing strong enough to destabilize our arrogance and our ignorance. I would define suffering very simply as “whenever you are not in control.”

If religion cannot find a meaning for human suffering, humanity is in major trouble. All healthy religion shows you what to do with your pain. Great religion shows you what to do with the absurd, the tragic, the nonsensical, the unjust.

If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.

If there isn’t some way to find some deeper meaning to our suffering, to find that God is somewhere in it, and can even use it for good, we will normally close up and close down. The natural movement of the ego is to protect itself so as not to be hurt again. The soul just wants meaning, and then it can live.

Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p. 25

The email was one of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations. I came across them recently, and subscribed straight away. If you would like to subscribe too, and I can recommend them, the website is here: The Center for Action and Contemplation. It won’t cost you anything.