Being Wiser Than the Sages About Pain

The Words of God give me an edge over pain.

96 I see the limits to everything human, but the horizons can't contain your commands!   97 Oh, how I love all you've revealed; I reverently ponder it all the day long.  98 Your commands give me an edge on my enemies; they never become obsolete.  99 I've even become smarter than my teachers since I've pondered and absorbed your counsel.  100 I've become wiser than the wise old sages simply by doing what you tell me.

--Psalm 119: 96-100 The Message

When I think of my human quality, I realize that I'm limited.  I can only accomplish so much.  I can't seem to feel better, as I am in deep pain.  In fact, I cried a while ago because I received some bad news and my pain is excruciating.  Fortunately, I know who I can depend on when I feel so much pain--God, the Father.

I like to know that God is bigger than my pain.  I have a God who is bigger than my enemies.  His Words are so much more powerful than all my complaining about pain.  To me, my enemy right now is pain.  Pain is keeping me from doing the things I want and need to do.

I believed I could finish my writing course!

The irony was not lost on me.

Today, we managed to post up a few items on the walls of our rooms.   Educational posters were placed in my kids' rooms.  We put up photographs in the dining area.  Decorations, in the beach theme ended up on our bedroom walls.  Even my diplomas were hung up under the word, "Believe."  

A friend of mine recently reminded me, yet again, that it's okay to take pain medication.  I think I've taken just about all the pain I can take.  In the Bible, the Word says that God will only give us what we can handle.  I guess He thinks I can handle a lot.

I know that I'm not the only one in pain right now.  I don't want to mention all of the details, but I join in one particular person's grief.  It is extremely saddening to see someone lose someone who has been in their life for years.  Let me express my deepest condolences at this point.

I bring up the point of feeling pain at a loss.  This person in my life is very precious to me.  I hate to see this person suffer.  My heart aches for this person...and, yet, I know that God is watching over both of us.

I believe that God saw me through my struggles to get my diplomas.  I know that He has seen me through many trials.  He will see me and my beloved get through the pain.  The past triumphs point to future triumphs.  What hurts today will lessen with time; I trust God to get me through the pain and my goals.

Does knowing the truth about pain make me smart?  Am I to be considered a sage--a person of wisdom?  I don't claim to be smart, much less a guru to be followed.  I only claim to keep searching for the truth in life.  All I know is that after I suffer the pain of this day, I will make it to the next day, thanks to God.

If God has ordained that I write about pain, I will gladly follow His commands.  His commands cannot be contained by the horizon of the earth.  His commands, which helped shape the earth, are without limit.  If I do as God commands, I pray that I will be exhibiting true wisdom...but if I end up failing to be wise, please, friends, have mercy on me. ;)

Thanks so much for reading today's blog entry about being wiser than the sages about pain.  I appreciate you taking the time to read it.

 How about you, my readers?  Are you believing in God?  What about believing about pain?  What do you believe constitutes a sage?  I encourage you to read the Bible, especially Psalm 119.  That chapter contains a lot of words of wisdom.  Accepting pain, and dealing with it, are a part of life.  Relying on God can help get through pain.

 God bless you all, my dear friends, with His wisdom and peace.  In Jesus' name.  Amen! 

This has been an entry for the Spiritual Sundays series. 


To compile this mini- bible study, I visited: http://www.biblestudytools.com/

Living Through the Suffering: My Contemplation of Verse 42 of the Tao Te Ching

Dr. Dyer's book is Change your Thoughts--Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

Today, I am focusing on verse 42 of the Tao Te Ching, particularly this portion:

People suffer at the thought of being

without parents, without food, or without worth,

Yet this is the very way that

kings and lords once described themselves.

For one gains by losing,

and loses by gaining.

Suffering is a human condition.  Believe me, I'm a human, and I am suffering right now.  I have pain in my body and in my heart.  I am without parents to turn to when I feel lonely and misunderstood.  I am without good health.

On the other hand, I also have other things.  I have a home and cars.  I have a laptop and printer.  I have countless things in my house.  I have an overabundance of possessions, more than I ever had before, when I was a child.

There's a give and take to life.

When you grow up poor, you learn to appreciate what you gain as the years pass.  I now have a wonderful husband.  I turn to see him right next to me sleeping in our bed.  I get up and kiss my babies, who aren't really babies.  I visit my Facebook and read about my friends' lives.

Yes, I am living without certain things and people in my life.  Yet, I have many things and people in my life, too.  I am very grateful.  For example, as the verse above shows, the a king becomes a king because his parents pass away.  You can see that even a king suffers.

Now, I am in pain.  Tomorrow, I will feel better.  This pain is temporary.  Someday, I will definitely lose this pain.  It's up to God if that means I will pass away (and have the ultimate healing) or experience better health while my body lives on in this world.

Thanks for reading today's post.  

I appreciate it very much.  

I hope this post blesses you, my dear readers.

I've got some questions for you: Are you suffering right now?  What do you think about your suffering?  Doesn't it sometimes drive you crazy?  How do you get through the pain?  Do you turn to God?  I pray that would pray to God for His help.  He is sure to help you.

May God bless you, my beloveds, with His wisdom and peace, in Jesus' name.  Amen!

This has been an entry for Wisdom Wednesdays.

I am currently drawing inspiration from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer's book and the 81 verses of the Chinese wisdom book the Tao Te Ching.

 

 

Looking Beyond the Obvious: My Contemplation of Verse 41 of the Tao Te Ching

Dr. Dyer's book is Change your Thoughts--Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

Today, I am focusing on verse 41 of the Tao Te Ching, particularly these portions:

...The way of illumination seems dark,

going forward seems like retreat,

the easy way seems hard,

true power seems weak,

true purity seems tarnished,

true clarity seems obscure,

the greatest art seems unsophisticated,

the greatest love seems indifferent,

the greatest wisdom seems childish.

The Tao is hidden and nameless;

the Tao alone nourishes and brings everything to fulfillment.

Sometimes, things are not what they seem.

Little by little, as I've read the verses of the Tao Te Ching, my outlook on life has changed...for the better.  It has been a gradual practice to accept what is around me, and I am not 100% there, yet.  It hasn't been just a matter of looking at life in a positive way or noticing the obvious.  It's been a new way of looking at life.  It has meant accepting people and creatures for what they are--nature that reacts to the world.

For example, I was in extreme pain last week.  I could have looked at it in a negative way.  I decided, however, to pay attention to what my body was saying to me.  I "heard" my body say that it needed to rest so I stayed in bed.  I also realized that I need to eat healthier, which I purposed this week.

Yes, life is looking different to me.  It is like when a woman has childbirth pangs.  The woman doesn't like the pain.  The pain, though, signals contractions.  The contractions then help push the baby out.

Pain is a fact of life.

We need to start looking at the terrible situations in our lives as eventualities.  People pass away.  People leave us, for whatever reason.  Cars and appliances give out on us.  Our health has its ups and downs.  We are not the only ones to experience these terrible things.  We won't be the last ones, either, to go through trials and tribulations.

If we accept that the bad will come with the good, we are halfway to getting through life with our sanity intact.  Living out this truth will take us a long way.  If we stop overreacting to the inevitable situations in our lives, then we can live in peace.  Just because the birds outside chirp too much, it doesn't mean that we need to complain about it.  Why not stop and enjoy the bird's song?

Let's look at life with peace as the ultimate goal.

Even though some persons may not believe it, peace is just around the corner.  The Tao, or Source of peace (God, the Father) is here for us.  His peace is available to us.  We just have to grasp for it.  Although we might feel unloved by others, God's loves encompasses us.  

After all, God is omnipotent and omnipresent.

The next time I'm in pain, I'll remember that I should embrace the pain.  On the other side of the pain is an appreciation for what comes--total healing.  In the future when life seems difficult, I'll remember that God is here to make the way easier for me.  I hope that you, my readers, will hold this truth as your own, too.

Thanks for reading today's post.  

I appreciate it very much.  

I hope this post blesses you, my dear readers.

I've got some questions for you: Do you sometimes wonder if you are assessing a particular situation correctly?  Are you overreacting about every little "bad" thing that happens in your life?  Why not look at the next unsettling circumstance with a fresh, positive perspective?  You might find yourself in a more peaceable mood.  It's worth seeking God's help about the tendency to panic.  Go to Him now with your petitions.  He is sure to help you.

May God bless you, my beloveds, with His wisdom and peace, in Jesus' name.  Amen!

This has been an entry for Wisdom Wednesdays.

I am currently drawing inspiration from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer's book and the 81 verses of the Chinese wisdom book the Tao Te Ching.
 

How I'm Dealing With Pain

I want to eat more salads this week.

I suffered such pain this past week.  I won't go into all the details, except to say that my skin suffered a flareup.  Yes, I think it's coming in cycles.  I do what I can about it.  I even took naproxen sodium for the pain, which I promised to stay away from but to no avail.  

I told my hubby that I felt like going to the emergency room.  I even told him that I question why I should be alive if just to suffer this horrible pain.  Hey, I'm just being honest here.  No one who has been in such horrible pain can tell me they've never wondered the same.  It seems like the pain will never end...and yet, I must go on.

Enough of the pity-party.  Here's how I bore the pain:

1. I took Benadryl orally because that, I've heard, can dissipate rash from an allergy.  It's the histamines in the body that caused me intense itching.  I had to attack it from the inside.  It helped about 70% of the symptoms.

2. I slept.  I'd heard that Benadryl would make me sleepy.  That was so true.  I took enough of the medication, which hubby bought.  Sleep, sleep, sleep is what I did.

3. Writing helped, too.  I journaled about some of my frustrating thoughts about the economy and how people love to berate our president.  Everything is being blamed on him, and that upsets me so much.  Too many people do not understand that situations in the past set up what happens in the future.  Our President can only do so much when his hands are tied by Congress and the Senate; even my fifteen year-old understands this concept.

4. Spent time with my family.  I decided to play Wheel of Fortune on the Wii with my family.  It was fun.  I loved that we spent a few minutes together.  I loved that my family was practicing their spelling skills.

5. Finally, I read for pleasure.  I can keep reading for information online but sometimes I need to read for the mere fun of it.  Yes, I'm a kid at heart.  I love reading the Nancy Drew series.  A few weeks back, my hubby had bought my daughter some more of the books, and I had been looking forward to reading some of the books.

Here are my goals for this week to improve my health:

1. Sleep more and on time.  Sleep, it's been said, helps heal the body.  I've heard that the hours between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. are the optimal hours for the body to heal.  I'd also like to get up early to eat with my hubby.  A healthy start to the day with a breakfast leads to a better day.

2. Take my vitamins and supplements.  I want to take my Chlorella, cinnamon, and ginger.  I'd also like to research what other foods contain anti-inflammatory properties.  Perhaps I'll create a blog entry on just that topic.

3. Eat more plant-based foods.  I'd like to try to eat more salads and nuts.  Today, I turned on the TV to a PBS channel.  I found Dr. Joel Fuhrman speaking on how he's helped many people lose weight.  That's not what perked my ears; it's when he mentioned inflammation, which I suffer from.

 

Well, thanks for reading about how I dealt with my pain and my health goals for this week.  I appreciate it very much.

How about you, my readers?  How are you all doing?  Have you struggled with your health?  Have you suffered with inflammation?  I encourage you to consider bite-size changes in your life, gradually accumulating the better habits in your life.  If you need to improve your health, in any form, please ask God to help you.  Surely, He will, if you pray for His guidance.

This is an entry for Medical Mondays.  For past entries, click here.