The pain inside is too much. Like a fountain of torment within you, it continues to gush forth, its black, sticky, malignant gunk creeping into every crevice. It has been happening for so long or at such an intensity, you do not know where it will go or if there is any part of you it has yet to touch with its diseased ooze.
When will it stop? How will it stop?
It feels like you have tried everything imaginable to stop the flow, but every attempt has been futile. Every single one. Tiktok’s latest trend. Your best friend’s sister’s roommate’s recommendation. Mainstream media’s touted fad. That celebrity’s miracle solution. Cleanses. Detoxes. Fasts. Programs. Memberships. Plans. Apps. Groups. Pills. Shakes. Meditation. Religion. Whatever method you have chosen, it has not worked. If anything, it has exacerbated the problem or compounded upon it.
Perhaps it worked for a moment, but all it really did was all it could ever really do: temporary behavior modification. That is all any of these “solutions” can ever achieve. A temporary band-aid for a gaping, infected wound. Superhero-clad latex will never stop the pain, heal the infection or close the wound. All it will ever do is cover it up with a swath of neon sticky padding.
All these methods are simply the world’s sorry attempt to help us cast aside the pain, but it tells us nothing of where to put the pain. It sounds great to “Let it go,” like the blond ice princess so eloquently sings to us from her snow-capped mountain top, but where are you going to put it?
Physical pain may go away for a time, but if not properly addressed, it resurfaces with a vengeance or manifests itself somewhere else. This is even more the case with mental, emotional and relational pain.
We can only stuff the pain down for so long before it spews its slimy, black gunk all over and around us. We may be able to redirect its trajectory towards someone else, preferably someone we dislike, but instead it usually hits those closest to us, either intentionally or unintentionally. This may get the gunk out of us (or at least some of it), but now it has recruited its new host and opened you up as the recipient of his/her gunk.
Similar to the fact that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, only conserved or transferred, our pain cannot disappear altogether, only transferred onto someone else or stuffed down deeper within us. What is left is you tirelessly trying to use washcloths to stop the flow, even though the fountain is spewing like 100 fire hoses on full blast.
Where can all this pain possibly go? Where can you put it so that it will not boomerang with more power or gather carnage in its wake? Does such a place even exist?
All these methods are simply the world’s sorry attempt to help us cast aside the pain, but it tells us nothing of where to put the pain.
Yes, it does. It is at the feet of Jesus Christ because anything we lay at His feet, He will pick up and carry Himself.
“‘Come to me (Jesus), all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’” Matthew 11:28-30
This does not mean we unload all our baggage on Jesus only to utter our “Bon voyage” and go the other direction. It means we plop our baggage, chains and broken pieces at His feet and then we sit down there too. We rest ourselves at His feet, look up at Him and lay our head upon His knees. We surrender. We yield. We admit our futile attempts and ask for His forgiveness in trying to go it alone and in our own strength and wisdom.
We lay it all—including ourselves—before Him and wait. Wait for what? We wait for Him to pick it up and carry it for us. We wait for Him to take His cleansing power and apply it to all the gunked-up nooks and crannies within us. Some of it may be caked over with multiple layers, other parts may have been there for years, decades even, and its removal will be painful, but it is like a grander, truer proverbial band-aid being ripped from the skin. The pain is temporary and the end result is complete healing (Romans 8:18).
It is only when we allow Jesus to apply the healing salve of the Holy Spirit to our wounds that we can be restored. For it is in this process He opens our eyes to our true calamity: sin and the separation it causes between us and God (see Romans 8:5-7). He opens our eyes to this and the remedy He has provided for all who lay themselves at His feet: forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, redemption and restoration.
Forgiveness for the pain we have caused ourselves, others and most importantly, God. Healing from the pain and other havoc our sin has wrought. Reconciliation in a relationship once again made right with God the Father (see Romans 8:16-17). Redemption in a new life of freedom and peace found only in and through Jesus. Restoration to the design and purpose He originally designed for us.
Jesus gives all of this and so much more to those who lay themselves at His feet, but He does it in part. The world is still broken and evil still exists (not everyone has laid or will lay themselves at His feet), so there is still pain, brokenness, disappointment and death. Not to mention, even we as children of God are still sinners and continue to cause these things.
But in our new identities in Jesus Christ—as sons and daughters of Almighty God—we have somewhere to put our pain and someone to transform us.
When a new wave of pain comes, we simply lay it at Jesus’ feet, just like we did the first time, and we watch Him pick it up, just like He did the first time. We do it because we trust Him when He says, “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22). We trust that no matter what happens—whether the pain is dealt with immediately, in a short time, not in this lifetime, as we expected or nothing like we wanted—it is being dealt with and it is for good (His purpose and therefore, our ultimate good; see Romans 8:28).
But in our new identities in Jesus Christ—as sons and daughters of Almighty God—we have somewhere to put our pain and someone to transform us.
We know this, and we know God will not leave us where we met Him (see 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 3:9, 5:18). If we caused the pain, He will work in our hearts to remove whatever sin led to the pain and replace it with more of Him. Our God is not simply the remover of pain, but the One who takes those who lay themselves at His feet and make them into the person they were always meant to be: one made in and reflective of His image. We are the light of the world meant to share the Light with our world (Matthew 5:14-16), but to do that, the Light must cast out our darkness (see Acts 26:18, Ephesians 5:8). He must and He will, when we lay everything at His feet, including ourselves.
So the next time you have a burden which seems too heavy to bear, do not plop it in the enemy’s (Satan’s) fountain of despair, but at the feet of Jesus, your Risen Savior and Friend. Lay it there and watch Him pick it up. Watch Him pick it up and turn the gunk into beauty (see Isaiah 61:1-3). Watch Him transform your heart of stone into a heart of flesh and reclaim you as a beloved child of God (see Psalm 51:10, Ezekiel 36:26).
“‘Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’” Matthew 11:28-30
References:
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). Crossway Bibles.