Hurt so good
Come on baby make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
~John Courgar Mellencamp
Outside of John Cougar and the occasional bodybuilder, I am not really sure if anybody ever says the words – “it hurts so good.” In truth, most of us avoid hurt at all cost.
Admittedly, I have dove deep into the pool of the Enneagram. If you are unfamiliar with the Enneagram, it is a personality tool that states there are 9 types of people. (Check out my friend Beth at YourEnneagramCoach). My type, Type 2 – the helper, loves to avoid hurt as do a couple other of the nine types. Why? Because hurt sucks. Hurt hurts. So why would anyone think that something “hurts so good”.
Yet, I have learned an uncomfortable lesson in life, emotions exist on a spectrum. If hurt is on one end, then joy resides on the other. If sadness lives at one far side, happiness sits on the opposite. And if I eliminate one, I limit the other. So if I guard my heart to never feel hurt, to never face hardship, to never let grief and sorrow sucker punch me, I also eliminate the capacity to experience authentic joy and gladness. It seems completely counterintuitive that I have hurt to find joy. I wish I had better news, but you sometimes have to hurt so good.
Jesus gave two promises in the same verse. One I loathe and the other I love.
In John 16:33 it reads, ”I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Jesus makes a definitive, without question statement: “you will have trouble.” This is not like car trouble. No, Jesus uses a word we also translate as “tribulation” or great trouble. Jesus promises that we will face it.
Then he makes a second promise that presses on our understanding of God and time. Jesus was speaking to his disciples in their present which is our past, but uses a past tense expression. Despite the cross and resurrection being ahead of Jesus in the biblical timeline, he states it in a past tense – “I have overcome the world.”
Here is why this is important: 1) you will go through hurt, trouble, tribulation but 2) Jesus has already overcome it. While you are going through he has already overcome. While in your present trial you are hurting, he has already provided the healing.
Hurt is never meant to be good. Though, hurt can bring good. I realize there seasons that it feels like the hurt will never end. There are days when the hurt is more than we can handle. Hold onto this promise: Jesus has already, it is done, taken care of, overcome for your healing.
