Tylenol for the heartache

Growing up my mom gave me Tylenol for everything. My head hurt? Tylenol. My knee hurt? Tylenol. Everything was fixed with Tylenol. Are there places in your life where you wish you could just take Tylenol to rid yourself of the pain for a little while?

The last few days I’ve felt a lot of emotion. A lot of hurt, fear and sadness. So I thought, as I was up at 3 am crying, “I wish I could take Tylenol to make my heartache go away.”

There are tools to use to make heartache fade. The type of heartache I’m talking about is a deep, deep sadness. The type you feel when you’re betrayed or when something bad happens to people you love.

With that, I’ve listened to probably 90% of the podcasts by Abi and Justin Stumvoll. Their podcast is called The Connected Life. They talk a lot about getting connected to yourself and others.

One of the more recent podcasts talked about connecting to yourself and the pain or hurt you’re going/gone through. Sometimes I do not want to divulge down the path of pain. I will hide from it until the pain bursts from my inmost being.

Man, I wish I could take Tylenol when this happens and make it go away. There are other substances that do that for a little while but that is just a temporary fix.

Digging into the pain and finding the root cause will actually ease the pain. Healing hurts like hell sometimes. In an earlier blog I talk about having heart surgery. I remember having an encounter with God where my chest ached and my heart hurt immensely. I didn’t want to get healing because I didn’t want to deal with the pain. When God is healing your heart during “heart surgery” it hurts for a little bit and then it stops. The healing occurred and you aren’t in pain anymore.

Which do you want to deal with: pain that is temporary and healed quickly by God’s hand/grace, or a chronic pain with triggers and outbursts?

I’d rather the first one but sometimes I choose the latter. It’s okay to make mistakes and to feel your pain. What you’re dealing with is valid. Your emotions are valid. Seeking refuge and healing from the pain will always be there for you when you’re ready.

Take a breath and let Jesus heal the sore spots in your soul. Your sins or mistakes are not above healing. God loves you where you’re at.

Where can you get healing today?

Can you make space for yourself to feel and open up?

Can you forgive yourself and others who have hurt you? (It’s okay if it’s a work in progress to forgive:)