Encouraging A Thinking Faith
	Preach the gospel and if necessary use words. St. Francis

Sermon: I Haven’t Got Time For The Pain

Pain hurts.  Right!  Pain, by definition, hurts, sometimes really hurts.----------Perhaps it hurts every time you swallow.-------  Maybe it hurts every time you take a step because you've got neuropathy or some other wonderful condition.  Still yet, it  may hurt to eat, but it also hurts if you don't eat.  

Is any of this familiar?

It hurts to lie in one position for a long time, but it also hurts to move.

What body aches and pains do you have?  Is that part of the adversity you have to deal with?

Pain typically is a part of all disease, pain in all its forms --- sharp or dull, pulsating or steady, inconveniencing or excruciating.  And pain----pain is not only of a bodily nature, there is a pain that also can strangle, pierce, ravage the core of our being and our emotions.  This pain, call it psychic pain if you want to, strikes our-----to speak metaphorically, it strikes our heart and bombards, invades our brain, our thoughts, our peace of mind. 

With ten being the most peace of mind, on a scale of one to ten how much peace of mind do you have?  What is the current condition of your heart, your spirit, your emotions?

You know what Carly says, don’t you?  That would be Carly Simon.   Carly says, Simon says, no Carly Simon says “I haven’t got time for the pain.” 

All those crazy nights when I cried myself to sleep
Now melodrama never makes me weep anymore
'cause I haven't got time for the pain
I haven't got room for the pain
I haven't the need for the pain
Not since I met you.

I haven’t got time for the pain.  Well, guess what Carly.  You might not have time for the pain but pain, both physical and psychic pain, have a way of showing up and staying around whether we’ve got time for it or not.  I hate to tell you Carly, and I really like you Carly, and I love your song “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” and I love “Coming Around Again”  but------Carly you say you don’t have time for the pain not since I’ve known you, since you met this special person.  Well, I don’t want to upset your applecart Carly-----are yall writing this down-----I don’t want to upset your applecart but there is no person nowhere at no time who can erase the pain.

Have you ever expected another person, expected a relationship to heal all your wounds, make you forget about whatever it is you need to forget about?  Or put another way, have ever tried to bury your pain in a relationship or your job or any number of things?  Shovel, shovel, shovel, get the hole real deep, put the pain in, shovel, shovel, shovel, fill the hole back up. 

It didn’t work, did it?

Well, you may think it worked but believe me, one day----one day that buried pain might surface in all its ugliness, and even if it doesn’t do that, your buried pain, my buried pain, our buried pain impacts us in ways we aren’t even aware. 
When you come across someone who is----is a bonafide, professional jerk,-----------it may be that said person really is a jerk, born that way, came out of the womb that way, will never change not even on their deathbed, the jerk of all jerks.  But-----and I  think I’m right on this, with a lot of the jerks their jerkiness is directly related to their buried pain which they can’t see when they look in the mirror but everybody else, you and I can see even from a distance.

Don’t think you can sidestep your pain or bury your pain.   If you aren’t going to let the adversity of your past define your present life, if you aren’t going to be crippled by adversity, pain management is something you are going to have to address.

Now I don’t believe there’s a formula or a timetable for pain management, a schedule that you need to go by for dealing with stuff.  I’m definitely not saying you have to meet stuff head on, that you have to meet it immediately or that you’ve got a year to work it out and that’s it.  I’m not say if you don’t handle it this way or by this time you are going to be a mess.  I’m not saying that.-------------Go easy on yourself.  Your body and your mind may give you hints about the pace to deal with your pain or how to deal with your pain.  All I’m saying is sooner or later you have to deal with it.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking that by ignoring it it will go away. 

I remember an adult child of an alcoholic telling me her Dad’s alcoholism had no impact on her.  I didn’t argue with her.  I just gave her a book to read.  She read it and she discovered her Dad’s alcoholism, even though she was now an adult and had been out of her parents’ house for years----she read the book and discovered her Dad’s alcoholism was plastered------plastered all over her being.

I haven’t got time for the pain.  We’ve got to take time for the pain.  We have to.

Some people---and I can understand this----some people are so afraid of dealing with the pain because----they are afraid if they ever start crying they won’t be able to stop crying.  I understand that.

And some people are afraid to deal with the adversity and the pain because if they do they are afraid they will lose their mind.  I can understand that too.

Still others are afraid if they confront their pain they will get so angry, so disturbed, so emotional they will get out of control and do God only knows what.  I can understand that too.

I can’t guarantee you anything, but my experience is that for most of us opening the floodgates is a good thing.  Once the floodgates open it may seem like hell for a period of time but----but there will come a day when the adversity no longer will have the same power over you. 

Now listen closely. 

We really do have to take time for the pain because we really don’t have time for the pain.  No, I’m not out of both sides of my big preacher mouth.  Rather, what I mean is this.  We don’t have time for the pain in the sense that life is short, very short, and it is best if you and I don’t let unresolved stuff linger too long and go underground and seep out, be like a leak that never gets fixed.  It’s better if we allow God’s healing to penetrate us because before we know it our life will pass us by.  Our parents will die.  Our children will grow up and move on.  We’ll start receiving Social Security checks before-------before we can count to ten. 

James in our scripture lesson for today expressed it this way:  What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Here’s my prayer for you.  May God help you to live your life fully and joyfully even as you deal with pain and adversity.

All those crazy nights when I cried myself to sleep.  Yeah, I’m praying for you.

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