Not Just a Three-day Weekend

Jeremiah 15:18, 19 - Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?

What happens when pain decides to come for a visit to your house?
 
They arrive at your door, you begin to open it, but then you look down at a stack of suitcases and wonder what’s going on. You see, pain’s not just coming for a three-day holiday weekend or even for a couple of weeks during vacation.
 
What if pain decides to take up residency and live with you?
 
This is the difference between acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain lasts a short time, while chronic pain hangs around for a while and sometimes it never leaves you. “But why doesn’t it leave?” I frequently ask myself. “Have I done something wrong? Could I have done something different to make it go away?”
 
These are the kinds of questions that Jeremiah, in the Bible verses above, was asking. “Why is my pain unending?”
 
Jeremiah was a prophet during Old Testament biblical times. Israel had turned its back on God. So God dialed up Jeremiah’s number and asked him to be God’s man to speak to his wayward children. God was going to send his people into captivity if they didn’t change their ways.
 
But still. It was not such a great job to have, right? And talk about stress on the job, boy did he have a bucketful. Maybe it was the stress that was making Jeremiah so sick. But whatever the reason, Jeremiah accepted the job and kept his eyes on God. This gave Jeremiah the strength he needed to complete the task in the midst of his suffering.
 
God is waiting for you and me to keep our focus on him through our chronic pain and illness. It isn’t an easy job to accept. But I know that when I keep my eyes on God and our ultimate hope, he supplies me with strength like he did for Jeremiah.

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