You are my peace, who has broken down every wall.

A restoration is taking place. In more ways than I could ever ask for or imagine.

Do you wonder why not everyone can identify with things going well, but everyone can identify with pain? Pain seems to be at the heart of the human condition. A starving child in Africa, a billionaire in America, a simple middle class person right here in Singapore, we all know pain.

What is pain?

The dictionary defines it as a physical suffering or distress, or a mental or emotional suffering or torment.

But it's so much more than that isn't it? Pain is profound, because pain cuts deep. It has power to play on who we are, and shapes who we will be. It can come in so many ways, in so many forms. Sometimes, an event triggers it, but sometimes, it comes without warning; a dull ache in your heart.

And the thing about pain, it's truthful. There's no deception in pain. It makes us come to terms with who we are. No matter how ugly or how beautiful, pain exposes us. Happiness can be falsified. Happiness can be superficial. But pain, real pain, try as we might, we can't disguise it, we can't hide it. Not to ourselves, anyway. Pain goes deep, deep down.

It's real, it's sharp. It cuts, it hurts.

And God sees pain.

God knows pain.

God speaks through pain.

God heals pain.

Knowing that doesn't make the things around you suddenly become perfect. Knowing that is not a formula to a fairytale dream life. Knowing that doesn't entail a ticket that allows you to bypass pain, suffering, and grief. As established before, these make up the human condition - the human experience.

But knowing that gives you a revelation of the reason behind the pain. Knowing that gives you the comfort of knowing one who is above all pain. Knowing that gives you a hope, and the faith to carry on and

To trust.

Different people have different ways of dealing with pain. Some retreat into solitude. Some avoid it completely and prefer to put on a façade of happiness, finally letting it fade from memory, only to be reminded of it one day and feeling a fresh stab of pain. Some try to confront it and end up mired in it, unable to break free from it. Some deal with it by causing pain to others - broken glass that cuts others.

You might disagree. Haven't there been success stories? People who have gotten over their pain? Come to terms with it, and dealt with it?

Alright, have YOU successfully dealt with your pain? Really?

Let me suggest this, that most of us choose the second option. Avoidance. We think we have finally come to terms with it. But y'know, it's just a scab. Over time it gets harder and harder, and perhaps finally melds into a scar. But that doesn't mean it's not there.

Let me suggest that humanly, we are completely unable and unequipped to deal with pain completely and thoroughly. Let me suggest that that is just humanly IMpossible.

But yet there are some. There are some, who experience pain, and come out stronger than ever. Not hardened mind you, but stronger. These people are people greatly humbled. These are people who have chosen to let go. Not let go of it into emptiness or some unknown external force, but let go of it to the one true living God - The God who knows pain so deeply, and the God who has overcome pain. The God who promises that one day he will wipe every tear and take away every sorrow. The God who we can know, and the God who already knows us so intimately, knowing us even before he made the foundations of the earth.

These people know they can't deal with pain themselves, and so they let God deal with it for them. Sure, it hurts. It goes deep down. But just as plucking out a deeply embedded thorn, so likewise and even more so, reaching down deep into your heart, into your soul.

It's a scary process. But I think the key word here is that it is a process. If I may, let me make a bold claim here. Let me overturn a statement that we have all come to believe and find comfort in:

Time doesn't heal all wounds. Time cannot erase anything. It can perhaps bury it in the dusty corners of our memories, but it can never erase anything.

Time does not heal,

God heals.

So friends, will you let God heal you?

I want to tell you that I am no longer subject to "Life" and it being "like that". But I live a life that is Christ. My life IS Christ. And the only thing it's gonna be like, is "like Christ".

I still struggle with pain. I still struggle with being unable to let go. Sometimes I think that yes I can, I can do this and come out of it all okay and successful, but that self pep-talk goes down the drain once something happens again.

The thing is, no I can't. I can't do this. I can't even do it WITH Christ.

Because only Christ can do it. And I can only do it BY Christ.

This means no more of myself, and ALL of Christ. His fullness, and His power that works in me. The fullness of God revealed in Jesus Christ, and the same power that raised Christ from the dead.

This is in me because of Christ who is my life, and he continually works in me, to heal and to sanctify me.

So friends, will you journey with me? :)

Love pour out.

This dry and thirsty land,

Cries out.

Cries out from the very writhing of our souls,

The groaning from within.

Lord hear us,

Lord save us.