Pain, Suffering & Grief

Christian Quotes About Pain, Suffering & Grief…

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Augustine — God of our life…

God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies gray and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to your honor and glory.
Augustine

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Anne Frank — The best remedy for those who are afraid…

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.
Anne Frank

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John Henry Newman — There are wounds of the spirit…

There are wounds of the spirit which never close and are intended in God’s mercy to bring us nearer to Him, and to prevent us leaving Him by their very perpetuity.  Such wounds then may almost be taken as a pledge, or at least as a ground for a humble trust, that God will give us the great gift of perseverance to the end.  This is how I comfort myself in my own great bereavements.
John Henry Newman

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Annie Johnson Flint — God has not promised skies always blue…

God has not promised skies always blue,
flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God has not promised sun without rain,
joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God has promised strength for the day,
rest for the labor, light for the way,
grace for the trials, help from above,
unfailing sympathy, undying love.
Annie Johnson Flint

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Abraham Lincoln — It is said an eastern monarch once charged his wise men…

It is said an eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations.  They presented him with the words, “And this, too, shall pass away.”  How much it expresses!  How chastening in the hour of pride!  How consoling in the depths of affliction!
Abraham Lincoln

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John T. Faris — A man was carrying a heavy basket…

A man was carrying a heavy basket.  His son asked to help him.  The father cut a stick and placed it through the handle of the basket so that the end toward himself was very short; while the end toward the boy was three or four times as long.  Each took hold of his end of the stick, and the basket was lifted and easily carried.  The son was bearing the burden with the father, but he found his work easy and light because his father assumed the heavy end of the stick.  Just so it is when we bear the yoke with Christ; He sees to it that the burden laid on us is light; He carries the heavy end.
John T. Faris

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Unknown — Some of the world’s greatest men and women…

Some of the world’s greatest men and women have been saddled with disabilities and adversities but have managed to overcome them.  Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott.  Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan.  Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington.  Raise him in abject poverty, and you have an Abraham Lincoln.  Subject him to bitter religious prejudice, and you have a Benjamin Disraeli.  Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes a Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Burn him so severely in a schoolhouse fire that the doctors say he will never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham, who set a world’s record in 1934 for running a mile in 4 minutes, 6.7 seconds.  Deafen a genius composer, and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven.  Have him or her born Black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Harriet Tubman, a Marian Anderson, or a George Washington Carver.  Make him the first child to survive in a poor Italian family of eighteen children, and you have an Enrico Caruso.  Have him born of parents who survived a Nazi concentration camp, paralyze him from the waist down when he is four, and you have an incomparable concert violinist, Itzhak Perlman.  Call him a slow learner, “retarded,” and write him off as ineducable, and you have an Albert Einstein.
Unknown

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The Sunday School Times — Sometimes we are helped by being hurt…

Sometimes we are helped by being hurt.  A skilled physician about to perform a delicate operation upon the ear said reassuringly, “I may hurt you, but I will not injure you.”  How often the Great Physician speaks to us the same message if we would only listen!  Richer life, more abundant health for every child of His- that is His only purpose.  Why defeat that purpose?
The Sunday School Times

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Margaret Clarkson — Pain is pain and sorrow is sorrow…

Pain is pain and sorrow is sorrow. It hurts. It limits. It impoverishes. It isolates. It restrains. It works devastation deep within the personality. It circumscribes in a thousand different ways. There is nothing good about it. But the gifts God can give with it are the richest the human spirit can know.
Margaret Clarkson

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Jack Riemer — He who would live a life without pain…

He who would live a life without pain has come to the wrong world.  There is no such choice here on this earth.  But we can choose, at least to some extent, the kind of pain we want to have.  We can choose between creative pain and pointless pain, between holy pain and petty pain, between pain for a purpose and pain that has no purpose.
Jack Riemer

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Adelaide Anne Proctor — I thank thee more that all our joy…

I thank thee more that all our joy is touched with pain;
That shadows fall on brightest hours, that thorns remain;
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide, and not our chain.

For thou, who knowest, Lord, how soon our weak heart clings,
Hast given us joys, tender and true, yet all with wings;
So that we see, gleaming on high, diviner things.

Adelaide Anne Proctor

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Walter Heiby — A lone shipwreck survivor…

A lone shipwreck survivor on an uninhabited island managed to build a rude hut in which he placed all that he had saved from the sinking ship.  He prayed to God for deliverance, and anxiously scanned the horizon each day to hail any passing ship.  One day he was horrified to find his hut in flames.  All that he had was gone.  To the man’s limited vision, it was the worst that could happen and he cursed God.  Yet the very next day a ship arrived.  “We saw your smoke signal,” the captain said.
Walter Heiby

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Unknown — A story is told about a little boy…

A story is told about a little boy with a big heart.  His next-door neighbor was an older gentleman whose wife had recently died.  When the youngster saw the elderly man crying, he climbed up onto his lap and simply sat there.  Later, his mother asked the boy what he had said to their saddened neighbor.  “Nothing,” the child replied.  “I just helped him cry.”  Sometimes that is the best thing we can do for people who are facing profound sorrow.  Often, our attempts to say something wise and helpful are far less valuable than just sitting next to the bereaved ones, holding their hand, and crying with them.
Unknown

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Jeff Bridges — One thing we may be sure of….

One thing we may be sure of, however: For the believer all pain has meaning; all adversity is profitable. There is no question that adversity is difficult. It usually takes us by surprise and seems to strike where we are most vulnerable. To us it often appears completely senseless and irrational, but to God none of it is either senseless or irrational. He has a purpose in every pain He brings or allows in our lives. We can be sure that in some way He intends it for our profit and His glory.
Jeff Bridges

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Dorothy Dupont — One day…

One day, a child of mine came home in tears. Another child had been mean to him and hurt his feelings. I want to say now, as I said then, “When a person doesn’t like you, or is mean to you, it has more to do with them than it does with you. Dry your tears. You cannot be loved by everyone, because everyone cannot love themselves. You can know that I will always love you. And the greatest gift you can give to others is to love yourself. If you do that, you can love others without worrying whether they love you back. You will have enough love for both of you.”
Dorothy Dupont

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Mark Buchanan — Once we begin to flee…

Once we begin to flee the things that threaten and burden us, there is no end to fleeing. God’s solution is surprising. He offers rest. But it’s a unique form of rest. It’s to rest in him in the midst of our threats and our burdens. It’s discovering, as David did in seasons of distress, that God is our rock and refuge right in the thick of our situation.
Mark Buchanan