Life After StruggleSample

## How to Heal the Pain of This Season This season is not without pain. For some of us, this season of isolation has exposed our greatest hurts, desires, and vulnerabilities. But if we want to move forward from this time, we need to process this pain, not ignore it. So the question becomes, how can we process the pain from this season? We get a glimpse of this in John 5:2-9 . In this story, Jesus encounters a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus asks him a strange question . . . "Do you want to be healed?" Of course the man wants to be healed! He's been this way for 38 whole years. But that's not what Jesus is communicating. Jesus is really asking, does the man want to partner with Him in his healing? The man answers with a complaint. It was a simple question, but the man creates an excuse. Jesus says, "Get up, take your bed, and walk." He shows him there is a process to healing, something that has to be done on his part to receive the healing. So the man is healed. What can we draw from this? One, Jesus wants to partner with us in healing the pain of this season. This cannot be a solitary effort. Two, we cannot answer back with a complaint about this season. I have to stay inside, I lost my job, etc. To partner with Jesus means we have to be willing to follow what He speaks to us. Three, there's a process to healing⁠—something we have to do. We can be passive with it. We cannot sit back and wait for God to wash everything away. Again, He wants to work with us, not do the work for us. This is how we mature spiritually. Whatever hurts this season has exposed, know that it can be healed. It doesn't come from sitting idly and trying our best to ignore or numb it away. It comes from going to Him, and stripping away all the excuses that prevent us from doing this. Let's get ready to move out of this season with new lessons.