There is No Pain So Great...

Last week, I had the opportunity to get two days of peace and quiet. For the most part, our summer has been very busy, very filled with laughter and fun, and very loud. Three (often four or five) kids at a time, afternoons at the crowded pool, later bedtimes, and lots of activity has marked our summer of 2010. Oh, and DH's weekends away.

So, last week, I managed two days of much-needed peace and quiet. It started out right... with spiritual direction, some time in prayer, confession, and a massage (oh, yes... I am more than just spiritual!). I was carrying some heavy weight on my heart as I started out that morning, careful to guard the dressings on my wounds, certain that removing even just one layer would cause debilitating pain. A few hours later, heavy-hearted and stomach-knotted, sitting in the quiet cool of the church, I heard a gentle, almost-chiding voice from deep in my brain:

"Don't you know that there's no pain so great I can't bear it?"

And I broke open, let the tears fall, let the grace rain down on me, and... I survived. The pain was manageable. In fact, it wasn't even the least debilitating, once I let my sweet Lord into it.

And the peace that followed, the productive "nothingness" of reading novels, sleeping late, a gentle early-morning run on the golf course, even the sneaking home to finish prepping the school room... well, there was a grace to all of that, too.

So, my friends, as I slowly ease back into the world of blogging, I'll be considering some of what I've learned this summer, on my blogging break. And the first lesson is this: there is no pain so great that I can't take it to the Lord.