The Bondage of Emotional Pain

Life’s Like This — There are moments, I believe, in most of our lives, where the joy of living is overcome with depression, anxiety, and the fear of stepping outside one’s comfort zone to experience the best that life can offer. Moments in life, where it can be difficult to escape the bondage of emotional pain because we are fearful of letting others get close to us, where we can trust them with our feelings, and where we can let them get to know us to a point where a bridge of understanding can be built and relationships can flourish. Quite often, emotional pain is hidden, deep in a closet of darkness, and tucked away in seclusion where it can languish in solitude. But for others, their emotional pain is quite evident; they seem to carry the wounds of their heart on their sleeves where it is apparent to all that know them. For those of us caught up in a web of emotional pain, we often ask ourselves, when will it all end? Why, despite all the counseling we may have gone through, does the pain still persist? And why must we be held hostage to this pain from which there seems to be no escape?

For some of us, we may have been seeking the answer to these questions for a lifetime. Our memory banks seem to be over-flowing with negative self-talk that perpetuates our bondage to pain, even in the face of joy and happiness that is waiting there for us to grab hold of and embrace. Yet, despite the presence of love and joy that is often extended to us, we seem bent on pushing it away and not risk taking a chance to know something different. It’s as if we have been conditioned to only know pain, to only know the anguish of the circumstances of life that have been the root of our anxiety and depression. And yet, we desperately want to find the power within us to finally escape the bondage of emotional pain and begin to live life anew, free at last to embrace all that is good in this world without having it tainted by anxiety and depression. While we may go to countless therapy sessions to sort out our confusion and unresolved issues, the pathway to healing has to come from within us, from our making that one decision — to change our attitude– so that we can chart a new course for our happiness. And perhaps more important, is to come to the realization that life happens and that we cannot control what others do or how events unfold, but we can choose how we respond to them.

How we choose to embrace the challenges and disappointments that cross our path, how we choose to respond to them, is the key to escaping the bondage of emotional pain. But we must also find the will power within us to sustain our efforts, to help us persevere in the darkest times, and to help us find the peace that we ultimately long for. While we may want to accomplish these things on our own, it is much easier to make the journey toward inner peace and healing if we look to God for the answers. Yes, it needs to begin with our choice to change our attitude, but it is so much easier if we ask God to walk beside us, to comfort us, to guide us, and to be our source of strength and hope. All too often we think we can do it all by ourselves, that we are strong enough to conquer all our fears and anguish. But because of that attitude, we often fall flat on our face, and find ourselves crying out for help, crying out for relief from the troubles that seem to linger no matter how hard we try to escape them. But with God, and through His Son, Jesus Christ, we can find the peace and joy that can free us from our emotional pain. Having a relationship with Christ does not mean we will never experience sadness and disappointments in our lives, but by keeping our eyes on Christ, by living our lives as a reflection of His character, we will be better able to step outside our comfort zone and experience the best that life can offer.