Pain, guilt, fear, loneliness are enemies that we avoid but can prove valuable to us. Which have been enemies for you? Have you learned to use them for your gain?
Though some people stay mercifully free of acute physical pain, everyone has a form of suffering that will not go away: a personality flaw, a broken relationship, an unhealed childhood memory, a suffocating guilt. To understand suffering we must step away and look full in the face of agonized human beings.
What about the side effects of pain as it grinds down the soul toward despair and hopelessness?
When you have suffered, has it made you conscious of a different set of values in life?
“Pain is like fertilizer. It stinks when you’re around it, and you hate it. But after a while you realize that despicable stuff provided the nutrients for your growth.” Do you agree?
Quite simply, a quality like perseverance will only develop in the midst of trying circumstances. Think about it: a person who always gets what he or she wants has no chance to learn perseverance, or patience. Suffering can be of the tools to help fashion those good qualities.
The value lies not in the pain itself, but in what we can make of it.
Think of people who are in the midst of suffering. Describe how they have responded to suffering. Discuss some who are handling it destructively and some who are coping constructively. What makes the difference?
The suffering person faces choices. They can recoil in anger and despair or they can accept the trial as an opportunity for joy.
Finish the folowing quote with your own thoughts.
Pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the
HEART until .......
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