Culture of Suffering

 

    Suffering is a part of life, but it can become a way of life for some people.  Some people get stuck in the victim mentality.  They create a culture of suffering.  They shut the door on the Holy Spirit being able to heal the soul wounds, spiritual wounds, or heart.  Some wounds need time, but you also have to put yourself in a head space to be able to do what you need to do to get beyond the suffering.

    Pretending that everything is okay when it is not is not moving forward.  It is burying your pain.  It will come out in unexpected ways because you can only hide your suffering for so long.  The culture however can feed into the bad habit.  Instead of healing, it will push you to hide your pain to make everyone else more comfortable.  This is never healthy.

    The saying boys don't cry is a culture of pushing down pain.  Boys need to learn how to be men that know how to handle their pain and suffering in a healthy way.  It is okay for men to cry.  They just don't need to be momma's boys or cry babies.  This is a lesson that they should learn from their father, but if the father doesn't teach it, then they can still learn it from time with God.

    Suck it up or walk it off is good for small things like stubbing your toe or taking correction.  It does not work for genuine suffering.  It will destroy your spirit from the inside out.  It is the same as to say be strong.  What is strength?  Strength can do with being physically strong.  That just takes work.  However, the strength of the Bible is the capacity to withstand a great force or pressure. It is endurance.  It is not caving under the pressure, but that does not mean that you do not acknowledge or feel the pressure.

    Think positively or good thoughts is nice.  It can help you stay in a good mind frame for a time.  However, not everything in life is nice and positive.  To ignore the negative only gives it strength and it will show its ugly head when you want it the least.  It is better to face things head on and deal as it comes rather than pretend and be crushed under the pain.

    Consider other people.  They have it worse or it could always be worse, does not help a person in pain.  Pain and suffering are real.  No matter what form it comes in.  Down playing it only will give you guilt or anger for feeling it.  

    Pray and read your Bible.  That helps.  It will get you through the suffering, but what happens if you don't have the Bible with you.  This needs to be a daily practice, but a situational practice.  If you are in God's Word daily, then you can find comfort in His promises.  However, if you don't know what they are, then it is not going to be very effective in the midst of suffering.

    Then there is the eye for an eye saying.  That is scriptural, but not in the context we use it today.  God meant that justice needs to be upheld, but He wanted us to take care of each other instead of hurt each other.  We are to leave the judgement to Him.  We need to leave justice to those who are in charge: judicial system, medical, political, or parental.  

    Physical suffering leaves wounds and scars.  You can at least see them and people can empathize.  This suffering is painful, but can be treated with care.  Without care, then it can worsen and cause long term suffering.  Wounds can be cleaned out and will heal in time.  The scar is just the reminder of what happened.  This suffering is easy to define and understand.

    A heart or soul wound is suffering that is unseen.  It is hard to define or heal.  People are not understanding because they can't see or relate to what you are going through.  This is why emotional and spiritual suffering is more painful than physical suffering.  It last a lot longer and it much harder to heal.  

    Internal suffering is ignored and only gets worse far more than a physical wound.  The scar is always there, but it is hidden within you.  Other people only see it when a trigger is hit.  Like a physical wound if it affects a nerve, then when the nerve is hit there is a physical response.  The same goes for a trigger.  A person can be living a normal life, but when the trigger is hit they will act completely out of context or their normal behavior.  The trigger can cause immediate pain again, panic, fear, and other adverse reactions to a seemingly normal situation.

    People don't understand and it can cause more problems.  That is why we need to take responsibility for dealing with our emotional and spiritual wounds.  We need to take responsibility to know our triggers.  We need to let those closest to us know what those triggers are.  We need to continue physical therapy on our soul wounds like we would physical wounds.  Maybe one day the triggers will go away.  As a culture we need to become more understanding and patient with people to give them time to heal.  If post suffering is dealt with correctly, then it can lead other people to Christ.

Acts 17: 16-34, Ephesians 2:1-3, Philippians 1:27-30, & 2 Timothy 3:1-5