EPISODE 8. Pain, Pearls & Purpose
1. It is Henri Noewen who I believe called Jesus, the wounded healer. It is here that I begin the connection between pain and purpose.
2. Sometimes the price of our vision is that it can cause pain and require sacrifice. My friend Kris Vallotton coined the beautiful phrase: “vision gives pain a purpose.”
3. In other circumstances loss, pain, and tragedy can open up awareness of needs and opportunities which can create purpose out of the pain.
4. I love the imagery in the book of Revelation where the entrance to the eternal city is through 12 gates of pearl. Could it be that the 12 gates are created out of the pain and suffering of Jesus, and that it is through these that we enter into the glory of eternity.
5. As we turn our pains into pearls we can create gateways so that others can step through them into their breakthrough, peace, and hope.
6. Isaiah 53 He was wounded for our iniquities and by His stripes we are healed.”
7. Many will know of Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s 5 stages of grief. Denial – Anger – Bargaining – Depression – Acceptance. These are tried and tested but others have added to them in very helpful ways. Rick and Kay Warren in their journey of intense grief added sanctification, which for me means giving it to God and then a seventh which is service, using your loss to serve mankind.
BIG WORD of the week: PEARLS
Pearls are the product pain submitted to the cross of Jesus. In the natural when the oyster shell is penetrated by a parasite or grain of sand the irritation causes a substance to be released which turns a grain of sand or parasite into a pearl. Pearls & Oysters are a naturally occurring parable.
QUESTION of the week:
What tragedies, disappointments, pain, and trauma have become pearls in my life?
DECLARATION of the week:
God has created gateways of pearls in my life through which others can step through and find their breakthrough, hope, and peace. Nothing is wasted!
