Pain in the Neck
*Names have been changed to protect identity.
What does God’s Word say about adversity? In Genesis 50:20, Joseph is speaking to his brothers who had thrown him down a well and left him for dead, lied about it to their father, and set Joseph on a path of years of hardship. He says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (NIV).” God saw the abuse, He knew Joseph was going to suffer hardship because of someone else’s sin, and He redeemed it, but much later. Not only did Joseph find favor with his masters while in slavery and in prison, but he ended up being given great amounts of responsibility. Best of all, he had the opportunity to show forgiveness to his brothers and to see his father before he died. He was indeed restored, and more!
I don’t know anyone who enjoys adversity or invites it into their lives. Most of the time when we experience adversity, we want to find the quickest way out! It hurts, it’s inconvenient, and sometimes it is devastating and has long-lasting effects. Susan* experienced this in her marriage, and consequently in her divorce. For a long time after the devastation of the break-up of her family, she could not see any good in God’s plan. She could not understand the people she was dealing with, the lies, the betrayal, the loss. It just kept getting worse. She clung to God because He was the only stable thing she could count on. Eventually, healing started to poke into her existence and take over where brokenness had dominated.
Fast forward a few years. Susan took a job that was a pain in the neck from the beginning (literally)! The week she started, she developed a pain on the left side of her neck that limited her range of motion and made her pretty uncomfortable. After being there for a few months, the pain worsened and she developed more pain in her hips and legs. She changed chairs and went to the chiropractor, but nothing helped. She began to see a lot of discontent in the office, and high executives were starting to leave with no notice. Finally, she personally witnessed a girl being treated in a way she could not ignore. Not surprisingly, Susan became the next target.
If not for her adversity and healing from the last two decades of marital abuse, Susan would not have recognized the situation and high-tailed it out of there. She may have stayed and been accused of something worse than not being a team player. The unintentional product of her past adversity made her aware of the line between dysfunction and an unsafe place. She was able to leave without much loss.
When she went home, she began to feel the old criticism of her abusers rise up. “You’re a quitter.” “You can’t do hard things.” “You give up easily.” “You can’t stay the course.” But thankfully a friend quickly set her straight. She changed course because it wasn’t a good place for her and because the leadership was underhanded. She was smart to leave that environment. She had prayed about it and asked for advice before leaving. She was brave when someone else couldn’t be.
Susan no longer trembles when confronted like she used to. Her adversity has trained her to see and solve problems. When she went to bed that night, she turned her head and there was no pain! The body does indeed keep the score.
I encourage you today to let your adversity train you. Let it drive you into the arms of a loving God, who has such great plans of redemption for your situation, even if they are small and spread far apart at first. Write them down and revisit them. Continue to heal, and may God bless you with many unintentional products!