The funny thing about pain… Wait, is there anything funny about pain? No, absolutely not, pain is not funny. Your heart hurts, plain and simple. It can seem endless, like you will never get through that season. Every waking thought is about the incident or the person or whatever caused your heartbreak.
It feels as if you will never be the same again.
Every conversation, every breath brings your mind back to the time when your heart was broken.
In my situation, I forgave the people who hurt us but the consequences of their actions had not gone away. My heart still hurt. It was a life altering event for my husband and myself. (I wrote about some of the hurt I felt HERE) And because it affected us both, it seeped into our home. As a result, we talked about it endlessly. We couldn’t get past it.
Sometimes the best way to keep the peace is to walk away for a while.
I believe you can forgive but not approve of someone’s actions, especially when they are not repentant. You don’t have to stay in an abusive relationship.
Recently, I read an interesting blog post by a friend named Melchee Johnson called “For it is time to seek the Lord”.
She is Christian blogger friend I know only from the Twitter world. However, we share a love for our Savior, Jesus, and have become family through Him. At the beginning of the year, she wrote a post about the song, “Burn the Ships” by For King and Country. You can listen to it here.
I hope you will go to Melchee’s blog, MelcheeJohnson.com and read her post, then listen to the song.
The background story of the song was meaningful to me.
The author of the song tells the story of an explorer who discovered a new land but his men were too afraid to leave the ship. His crew would rather stay on the ship than go and explore the new land that lay ahead of them. Even though the ship was stinky and dirty, it was comfortable and familiar to them.
Because of this, the explorer had to burn the ship to get them to leave it. I could relate! God had to burn my ship to get me to move on to the new adventure He had for us.
Here are the lyrics to the song:
Burn the Ships
How did we get here?
All castaway on a lonely shore
I can see in your eyes, dear
It’s hard to take for a moment more
We’ve got to
Burn the ships, cut the ties
Send a flare into the night
Say a prayer, turn the tide
Dry your tears and wave goodbye
Step into a new day
We can rise up from the dust and walk away
We can dance upon our heartache, yeah
So light a match, leave the past, burn the ships
And don’t you look back
Don’t let it arrest you
This fear is fear of fallin’ again
And if you need a refuge
I will be right here until the end
Oh, it’s time to
Burn the ships, cut the ties
Send a flare into the night
Say a prayer, turn the tide
Dry your tears and wave goodbye
Step into a new day
We can rise up from the dust and walk away
We can dance upon our heartache, yeah…
So, light a match, leave the past, burn the ships
And don’t you look back
So long to shame, walk through the sorrow
Out of the fire into tomorrow
So flush the pills, face the fear
Feel the wave disappear
We’re comin’ clear, we’re born again
Our hopeful lungs can breathe again
Oh, we can breathe again
Step into a new day
We can rise up from the dust and walk away
We can dance upon our heartache, yeah
So light a match, leave the past, burn the ships
And step into a new day
We can rise up from the dust and walk away
We can dance upon our heartache, yeah
So light a match, leave the past, burn the ships
And don’t you look back
Melchee’s post actually caused me to catch my breath and think.
It’s time to cut the ties, say a prayer, and stop looking back. God wants something new for us.
Consequently, I realized I didn’t hurt anymore. I could let it go.
The funny thing about pain…
When you are in pain it seems like healing will never come, like you will hurt forever. It feels like you will never be happy again. I kept telling my husband, “my happy was broken”.
But God…in all of His grace and goodness allows you to realize one fresh new day that you haven’t thought about that event in a long while. You realize that all too familiar hurt is gone! It’s time to rise up from the dust and walk away and dance on the heartache. It’s time to let your heart find your happy again.
The funny thing about pain…
You won’t hurt forever. Healing won’t happen overnight but you will be happy again. I promise.
So, the funny thing about pain…as all-consuming and life altering as it can be, God can take it away in a breath and you won’t even realize it. One fine day breathing will be easier and you will smile again.
Let’s walk into this new year together, out of the fire into tomorrow.
This year I’m not even going to talk about goals. I’m going to focus on my identity in Christ and my relationship with Him. Nothing else matters. God is everything.
As my friend, Melchee says, “2020 is not my year, but His. I won’t focus on a word, but thirst after God and THE Word. Pressing, seeking, knocking.”
Praying for blessings for you in 2020, my precious friends. And thank you, Melchee, for sharing what God placed on your heart.
All my love,
James 5:13 New Living Translation (NLT)
13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020 Shawna Novak
