Working With Pain During Lent
Lower back pain paid an unwelcome visit recently. One of our adult children who happened to pay a visit expressed some concern when he saw me struggling a bit. While I appreciated his empathy, I could only think of the difficult, even dangerous job he currently has to deal with every day. I knew my pain would eventually ease. His job, though, would still be there. You can imagine how much I appreciated his concern for me. It encouraged me to simple press on with the work of the day despite the pain. Not only that, I was reminded to offer up the struggle, rather than complain or, frankly, spend a lot of time thinking about my unwelcome visitor. This was especially helpful in allowing me to persist in those daily mortifications to which I had committed as part of my Lenten discipline, rather than ease up on myself because of the pain. With the help of my child's empathy and God's grace, the work day turned out to be particularly productive, from both a business and a...