Last week I was struck ill.  Not just a little cough or flu, but seriously sickly.  Complete with excruciating pain.

Because I have stage three chronic kidney disease, every one thought I was just passing a kidney stone.  No big deal right?  Except if you have CKD it can damage your kidney function even further.  And I was just sure it was and afraid of going to the hospital to find out.

And the timing.  The timing of this thing couldn’t have been worse.  See if was in the afternoon and the next morning I had to take my mom to the doctor.  So if I went and they put me in the hospital, my worst expectation at that point, my mom would be left high and dry.  So I had to suffer through until after her appointment the next morning.  Thank goodness her appointment was early.  But God’s timing always prevails.  In the meantime, I was doubled over in pain.  My husband kept asking me if he could take me to the hospital, like every five minutes, but I kept on telling him not yet.  Finally, about three hours later, I consented.

When we get to a bed, the first inkling of how sick I really could be was the fact that the first thing the doctor did was order morphine for me.  Morphine!  I’ve never in my life had morphine that I know of.

Long story short, the story was nine and a half hours at the emergency room, it turns out it was not a kidney stone at all, but diverticulitis.  A fancy way to say an intestinal infection.  Worse, much worse than passing a simple kidney stone.

What difference does that make, you may be asking.  Well, my uncle had diverticulitis, minus the pain.  He ended up not going to the emergency room for a long time.  Because of that, the infection ate a hole in the wall of his intestines.  All that poison in there, complete with stomach acid which is brutal, was flowing freely inside of him where it shouldn’t have been.  That in itself is pretty gross, but could also be deadly.  He had to have surgery in order to remove part of his intestine and clean him out.

See, I missed all of that because of the pain.  The pain is what stopped me from this progressing further.  So yes, I’m thanking God for the pain, for sure.  But here’s the thing.  We are told to thank God for the pain.  And not only that, but through the pain.

So tell me, what is your pain today?  Maybe it is shame?  Maybe it is guilt?  Maybe grief?  Maybe you feel alone?  Maybe you feel abandoned? Maybe it’s physical like mine was?

Here’s the thing:  No matter what pain you have, run to Jesus with it.  If it’s physical, He’s the great physician, if it’s abandonment, He promises to never leave you or forsake you.  If it’s guilt, He’s here to forgive and take that away.  If it’s shame, there’s a fabulous list of who you are in Christ running all throughout the scriptures. If you need comfort in grief, He is the God of ALL comfort.

Maybe the pain is to bring you closer to Him. Or maybe, just maybe, the pain is Him surgically removing or changing something in your life that needs to be changed so you can grow and move forward in step with Him!  So run to Him today!