Pain Pain GO AWAY!!
Before we get started today I wanted to share a pic of Linda and me, and yes…we are as happy as we look, which isn’t always an easy task but we’ve had almost 30 years to get it right. (thank you Daddy!) Today I want to talk to you about something that we are all experts in…and that is the subject of PAIN. Whether its physical pain or emotional pain…we all have lot’s of experience in it, but most of us haven’t learned how to deal with it. I’m sure that some of you remember feeling unloved by your mother or father, longing for arms that didn’t hold you, or maybe not as much as you needed them to. Perhaps they did it on purpose just to hurt you, or maybe it wasn’t their intention but you still suffer from that pain of rejection. You may have had a divorce or infidelity in a marriage or relationship happen to you and YEP! here we go again with the horrid pain of rejection searing your heart like a hot branding iron. Perhaps you’ve never been shown genuine love at all by family or friends and still wonder what it’s like. Believe me when I tell ya…I’ve been there too!
God found ME in early 1973 while I was in the Navy…now I wasn’t looking for him but when he found me he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse…he loved me unconditionally. He politely asked me if he (and Jesus) could come in to my heart. Since I had no heart to speak of I guess I figured that I had nothing to lose so I said yes. I remember feeling very little change in my life and really didn’t give it much thought after that. I remember living my life just as I always did after that, like partying and female company etc. I knew that God was in me somewhere but he didn’t utter a word to me about my lifestyle…he just accepted me like I was…he let me live just as I wanted to live. What I didn’t realize until later was that he was loving me as I needed to be loved, not how he really longed to love me. I realize that he wanted to talk to me and enjoy life with me but at that time I was unwilling…so he just kept on loving me the way I wanted to be loved.
Later on that year while I went from rejection to rejection…from person to person trying to fill the void, I began to realize something. I was living how I wanted to live and God wasn’t protesting my lifestyle at all. I began to realize that the way that I was living was the source of my rejection and that God had nothing to do with it so when all the smoke and rubble cleared, God was the only one still there. I have shared this with you so that you can begin to learn how I practice as a Christian Counselor and what my motivation is. I dislike pain just as much as you do…please…let me help
