I was teaching the adult Sunday school class at church this past weekend and we were talking about Jesus going to the cross. Specifically, we were talking about how Jesus opted not to take the wine with gall, which would have acted as a potent painkiller to help him through his ordeal. To this, one of the people in class said she thought Jesus’ real suffering was in the garden of Gethsemene where he was so overcome with despair that he sweat blood. To this I asked, “Which is worse, physical pain or emotional pain?” To a person, they all said emotional pain.

There are two quotes I love about physical pain. The first I stoled from the Marine Corps: Pain is weakness leaving the body! The second is from the movie The Replacements: Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever!

See, physical pain does heal, but emotional pain can be a different story. Most of us can remember some emotionally traumatic event in our lives and no matter how long ago it happened we still feel that sting of pain as the memory spills out of the box in which we usually keep it locked! Emotional pain eats away at us from the inside out, but never really puts us out of our misery; it just lets us linger there.

This blog – Heavy, Deep and Real – is about emotional pain and how together with God’s help we can not just manage it, but heal it! We’re going to talk about heavy, deep and real things instead of the patty cake stuff you usually see.

Thanks for signing on. It’s going to be a great ride!