I hurt my back as a boy and it never quite healed right. I don’t know if it was from playing football, lifting weights unsupervised, or wrecking my bike. But for over 40 years now my back has been in pain every single day. No amount of stretching it, exercising it, cracking it, popping it, icing it, heating it, or resting it makes the pain go away for long. Doctors and Chiropractors haven’t been able to heal it either. It is just something I have learned to live with.

I didn’t realize, though, the effect it was having on my face until recently. I looked in the mirror this morning as I was shaving and saw the pain lines in my forehead and between my eyebrows have gotten so deep that they never totally go away. As I gazed at them I thought to myself about all the pain, suffering, and loss in this world. And I realized these are things we all must face in our lives here.

After I finished shaving I sighed. I looked in the mirror again and attempted a weak smile. That is when I noticed something, however. When I smiled the pain lines in my face faded and lessened while the laugh lines around my eyes and cheeks deepened and grew. I knew in that moment that God was letting me know something: the pain in my back was no match for the love in my heart. And all the suffering and loss in this life are no match for the Power of God’s Love to help us through them. I smiled again and thanked God for the wisdom in my wrinkles.

God doesn’t promise any of us a life without pain. But God does promise that His Love will see us through it. And the more love we share, the more laughter we spread, the more good we do, the more help we give, and the more joy we scatter the less our pain will control us. Pain may be a part of life, but in the end Love always wins. Don’t let your pain rule you then. Love deep, live well, and know that one day God will bring you to a place of no pain but only Joy.