Pain: We Can Do This Together

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens . . . a time to tear and a time to mend. — Ecclesiastes 3:1, Ecclesiastes 3:7

I once told Aaron that if I found out I wasn’t pregnant that month, I’d break something glass, just to feel it shatter in my hands. And then I found out I wasn’t pregnant. Again. I didn’t break anything, but I posted something on my blog about how I was feeling.

Later that week I had lunch with my friend Emily. I hoped she hadn’t read my post. She was one of my seventeen pregnant friends, and I wanted it to be a sweet, happy lunch. And it was. We talked about all the lovely baby stuff, and then she gave me a gift.

She said she had read my post, and that this is the point in friendship when sometimes two friends walk away from each other for a while, because the pain and awkwardness and tenderness are too great. She said she thought we could do better than that.

She handed me two pairs of safety goggles.

She said, “When you feel like shattering something, I’ll be right there with you. We’ll put on our safety goggles. I’ll help you break something, and then I’ll help you clean it up. You’ve been celebrating with me, and I’ll be here to grieve with you. We can do this together.”

Have you ever had a friend share generously in your pain or joy, even though they were in a very different sort of season?

Excerpted with permission from Savor: Living Abundantly Where You Are, As You Are by Shauna Niequist, copyright Zondervan.

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Your Turn

What about you? Have you seen a friend in pain and entered into it with them instead of walking away no matter the great tenderness and awkwardness? Today, who could use a set of safety goggles as a gift from you? Who needs you to partner with them in grieving and before the Lord? Come share with us! We want to hear from you. ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full