Senior Living

Ihave not dealt with a great deal of physical pain in my life, but I know some people who do. You may be one of them. My experience with pain has mostly been a recurring bout with sciatica that will last only 2-3 months at a time. I am currently in my 5th round of it. So, I am sitting (or standing because sitting is worse) and pondering how people deal with pain every day. Sure, drugs and shots may help, but I am thinking of people I know who say even that does not help. One such hero of mine is a little lady named Bobbie who lives in constant back pain. On a scale of 1-10 she tells me it hardly ever goes below a 5 and has been as much as a 9. But she has not allowed her pain to stop her ever-positive attitude in life. She uses her pain to drive her to her knees in prayer—but not prayer just for herself. Somehow she lets her pain be a motivation to pray for others, and she loves to write letters of encouragement to others. She does not let her pain crush her spirit nor her attitude. In 2 Corinthians 12:7 the apostle Paul wrote, “ So to keep me from becoming conceited…a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.” There have been many guesses through the millennia as to what this “thorn” was, but the agreement seems to be that it was not a literal thorn. Paul said, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” I believe this is exactly what my friend feels about the “thorn” in her back.