Triumph

"If you don't transform your pain, you will transfer it"

Heard this on the radio, not sure where the quote came from but it rings true.

Many of us, probably all of us, have pain. Some have dealt with severe trauma. How can we heal? How can we not let this ruin our lives? How do we take the power back and live a joyful life?

For each of us the path is different. For each of us finding a way to heal is different. There is no right or wrong. There is no perfect plan, that if you do x y and z then your will be good. 

I believe, I know, that Christ is the perfect healer. He is the x y and z. If you turn to Him, if you trust in Him, if you allow His grace to show you how to transform your pain. 

The path He leads you to will be different from the path He has taken me. And your path will be different from others. But it is a path to healing, love and joy.

If we allow our pain to fester, if we wallow and live in that pain, it will eat us up. It will burn so hot that we have to transfer it. Instead of giving love and joy, we will be giving more pain, grief and sadness. Anger, hatred, and revenge are not paths to healing, they are paths of transfer. To take your pain and share it, to make others hurt as you are hurting. Time and again these are shown to only ignite your pain, to make your pain stronger as if you are feeding it. 

This is not to say we should allow ourselves to be hurt, that we should not seek justice. 

If someone does evil than they should have consequences. But for what point. For revenge, for getting even, for hatred, to satisfy our own anger. Or to hopefully protect others, to make the person who committed the evil to recognize what they have done, to hopefully give them a chance to repent. Maybe our current society, our current trend, doesn't support this idea. Society seems to say, "if you have done something against another, your are evil, you should be locked away and they key thrown away".  "You are not worthy or capable of change"

Pretty soon, and we are getting to that point, we will just be a country full of prisons and prisoners. A country that is more focused on revenge and anger, then repentance, healing and creating a better society.

I have made some mistakes in my life. How bad? It's all relative. I am grateful that my God offers mercy and forgiveness. A chance for me to make it right and find the right path again.

Christ was innocent, he committed no crime. He was persecuted and executed. He took that pain and transformed into our salvation. "I will never know how much it cost, to take my sins upon that cross" He took my sins with him unto the cross. He offered me forgiveness and salvation upon that cross. 

This past Sunday we celebrated the Triumph of the cross. It is a triumph. 

Christ, the ultimate transformer, made his death our triumph.