Pain is like a very nasty weed. Its roots run deep, its leaves spread wide and block out light. It can take over and make all things good seem distant, unreachable.

But just as pain is within, so, too, is goodness. God dwells within, grace resides down deep, and the Holy Spirit makes its home inside.

Although this pain, this weed, seems to be obscuring anything good, it cannot destroy God, grace, or the Holy Spirit. These are at the ready to bring solace and strength. All it takes is conscious reflection on them, and not so much the pain.

Chronic, ongoing pain may be physically impossible to erradicate. But they need not be all-consuming. Allow God to prune the leaves, grace to contain the roots. And call upon the Holy Spirit to push forth from within and bring what is light, what is good, out into the blessed open.

Peace,

Maureen