What if pain is the great liberator of pain?

​To minister: tend to the needs of someone.

When I speak at trauma and resilience conferences like I did yesterday, I frequently have people waiting in line to talk to me when I finish. It's never to tell me how impressed they are with my knowledge, or how eloquently I speak, it's always to say, "I can relate to your story so much."

A woman asked me yesterday if I'd be willing to talk to her brother. No one's been able to connect with him, she said, but I think he'd relate to your story.

In other words, she was suggesting my story - my experiences - would minister to him in ways other people haven't been able to. She was suggesting my story might influence him even though he wasn't present to see my PowerPoint.

We live in a world where knowledge is more available than ever. In fact, we are turning more and more processes over to just plain old intelligence.

Intelligence minus the emotions and humanity.

Robots. AI.

There seems to be cultural momentum around the idea that the more we know, the more intelligence we collect, the more free we will become.

Free from struggle and hardship and pain.

What if it's all smoke and mirrors? What if it is pain that was actually meant to be the great liberator of pain?

What if Christ dying a painful death on the cross wasn't some grand gesture but a grand act of ministry. A grand statement crying out that the pain I am experiencing will ultimately free you from the pain you're experiencing.

Because it's true. There are many days I turn to Jesus and say, "I can so relate to your story."

I deeply appreciate the sermon on the mount, but it would mean very little to me if I couldn't relate to the pain of the man who delivered the sermon.

People show up to conferences like this because they want ministry for their pain, or they want to become better ministers for someone else's pain. Neither can happen as effectively as possible if the presenter doesn't come from a place of pain.

Both in life and in the presentation.

Maybe that sounds like a lot of people are not equipped to be presenters. Quite the opposite. It makes us ALL equipped to be presenters.

We all have pain. We all have stories. Presenters simply have no interest in any longer hiding from that. Presenters have come to accept - to fully embrace, even - that my greatest gift as a presenter, as a minister, is my pain.

We don't all need packed college auditoriums to be presenters.

Maybe someone in your friendship or marriage needs a presenter.

Maybe someone in your small group needs one.

Maybe someone who sits alone in the cafeteria at school or in the breakroom at work needs a presenter.

There are people all around us craving a chance to say, "I can relate to your story so much."

Pain is the ultimate healer of pain, and relating to each other's pain is the foundation of all meaningful relationships. Relationships that are impossible as long as we're hiding from our pain and not presenting it.

We've all walked out some stuff in our life. Don't hide from it. Use it to minister.