I am discussing forgiveness with a friend. When we got to the point of “standing in the pain,” trouble started. My friend said this, “When I think of standing in the pain, it scares me. Won’t the pain crush me? After all, modern times and modern medicine have the goal of eliminating pain, not heaping it onto our shoulders.” How do I respond to this?
Your friend is missing the paradox of forgiving. As we stand in the pain, we stop running from it and meet it courageously. As we do so, we realize that we will not be overcome by the pain. It is here that standing in the pain actually helps to lessen that pain as the person no longer is afraid of it and faces it. This is the paradox: Although it appears as if one will be crushed by the pain, the opposite occurs, and the person becomes free of most or even all of that pain.
Please follow and like us:
