Dealing With Pain

Scott Peck began a best-selling book with a sentence only three words long: "Life is difficult." Life starts difficult, when we're forcibly pushed from the warm, soothing womb into the cold, glaring lights, then turned upside down and smacked. Life ends difficult, when we're struck down by cancer, emphysema, stroke, or old age. And every day in between has some degree of difficulty.
So very early on, we learn to soothe our pain [in a variety of inappropriate ways. We try all sorts of things.]...
But the bottom line is, we still have pain, because life is difficult. And that's where spirituality comes in. Richard Rohr, an author and retreat leader, says that "Spirituality is all about what you do with your pain." You can choose to medicate it [in inappropriate ways], or you can face it in God's presence. One path stifles growth, the other promotes it.

- Kevin A. Miller