Psalm 103 speaks of God’s compassion toward humanity: “You know all about us, inside and out. You are mindful that we’re made from dust”, says verse 14. In “Religious Refugees”, Mark Gregory Harris quotes Henri Nouwen as writing about the importance of recognizing our common humanity. Nouwen says, “the way we let go of our losses and sorrows is by connecting our personal pain to the great suffering of humanity, by understanding our own grief and loss as part of the larger picture of the world. For we are not the only ones who suffer in the world. Nor are we all alone.” We are never alone when we suffer. We have a brave cloud of faithful witnesses, from the past and present, who have walked the same road and whose tears join ours in the vast sea of human suffering.”

Some of our suffering is unnecessary, meaning it’s lies we are believing about God, ourselves, or others. Harris points out that the Greek word “elegcho” means “to expose, reveal, or bring to light” when used in Ephesians 5:13: “But everything exposed (elegcho) by the light becomes visible-and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.” He says “To experience truth-based awareness, we need the light of God’s Spirit to expose what is hidden in the dark recesses of our hearts. Then, we can hear God’s loving, compassionate truth spoken into our inner most being, reminding us of our true identity that we are forgiven and unconditionally loved.” If our suffering is due to our own misperceptions and doubts about our worth and value, which I know much of my inner turmoil can be, we need to be proactive in exposing the dark with light.

When we allow ruminative thinking and untamed emotions to snowball, we can bring on a suffering that does not need to be there. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” This is not a passive action, we have to take a pro-active stance in the thought-rearing department, which in my head is easier said than done! Philippians 4:8 says “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.”

Our wounds can be deep - from past or present situations, and emotional pain and the thoughts that accompany them, can feel excruciating, especially if you are also a Highly Sensitive Person like me. I FEEL a lot and it’s intense sometimes. I can almost become my emotions if I am not careful and let them define me more than they should or is best for my mental well being. Bringing God into my pain WITH ME has been very healing and clarifying to sort out the actual fact from fiction in what I am feeling.

I love what Harris says about our overwhelming emotions: “Over time, I learned the practice of being in the beautifully dangerous presence of God. ..It is a knowing that transcends words. It is Spirit to spirit. It is an embrace of mystery or a quiet assurance that Mystery has embraced me. Remaining in the silence of prayer was risky. There was no telling what dark, painful, or challenging experience would be revealed and encountered in the light of God’s love. It was also beautiful because the God I was running from was far more loving, gentle, and supportive than I ever imagined. God’s ability to tenderly show truth without overwhelming me helped me trust God more as time passed.”

I struggled to pray and read my Bible regularly after coming out of my divorce. I missed the comfort and truth that it brought me, but many of the words of scripture had been distorted and twisted, that it made it hard to decipher what the true purpose and meaning of scripture was. I dug into their context much more and prayed for the Holy Spirit to show me what the verses I was reading meant. I prayed more and allowed time for quiet reflection and found evidence that God was revealing what was in my heart and mind and sorting out the truth from the lies. I found a great source of comfort and healing in this practice of continually renewing my mind.

Helen Keller, who had her fair share of suffering said “The world is full of suffering, but it is also full of the overcoming of it.” All of humanity has this in common, we all suffer. Sometimes it is consequences to our actions and choices, sometimes, the actions of other people’s choices. We tend to want to isolate when we are suffering, which is breeding ground for the lies that we are completely alone in our suffering. The truth is, we all suffer from the same common things, we just do not realize it in our isolation rooms. That is why support groups are so helpful, people find common ground with fellow-sufferers and realize they are not so odd after all. There is a beauty and healing that comes from knowing we are not alone in our pain. I wish our churches were more like support groups and less like the “Stained Glass Masquerade” song Casting Crowns sings about, maybe it would help us remember the commonality of man and suffering. YOU ARE NOT ALONE in your pain.