Passing Along Pain

Did you know that when you’re in a bad mood and you snap at someone…you are passing your bad mood to someone else…who in turn passes it to someone else?
Or if you gossip about someone…that the people who hear your put-down, judge that other person from your words alone and then spread the story to others?
Or did you know that even if you ignore someone, that this person you’ve ignored feels your indifference and rejection towards them and in turn ignores you and learns to ignore others as well?

Of course, some pain isn’t passed along right away. Some pain is stored up and allowed to build up until a person can’t bear it anymore. There aren’t shootouts in schools for no reason. There aren’t suicides for no reason. There isn’t alcohol and drug abuse for no reason.
There isn’t depression for no reason.

You see, there are one trillion and one ways that we all hurt each other. This is how we pass pain along. This is how we pass sin along. Everyone judges, everyone name calls, everyone gossips, everyone condemns, everyone rejects someone, everyone causes pain to others.
Of course some pain is so severe that some people’s lives are destroyed. Whether it’s abuse, or prejudice, or a condemnation. Some people’s lives have been incapacitated because of someone else’s sin.

That mean old man who hates everyone and whom everyone hates…didn’t become hateful for no reason. It may have come from his family. It may have come from his peers.
It may have come from strangers. Chances are, he was probably once a happy baby.
Either way…the man has ceased to become a happy, loving person because he has accumulated all of the numerous pains and rejections over the years and now knows only hate and bitterness.

And whether you want to believe it or not. You are also responsible for causing a lot of pain to others…others who still hold on to that pain that you gave them.
It’s too bad. The world is cold because of us.
But what about us? People have hurt us too.
“I can’t help it. I don’t mean to hurt others, but I’ve also been hurt.”
True. But as Christians we are called to stop it all…
this never-ending recycling pain.

Jesus changes everything.
He told us to forgive others for hurting us. He told us to love our neighbors. He told us to love our enemies. He told us to let our light shine. He told us to pass along love.
He told us to pass along the love of God.
Why? Because He first loved us…even though we were sinners. Though we didn’t deserve it, He passed on love to us anyway, through His son Jesus.

As Christians, if we passed along the love that we receive from Jesus…the love that is patient. The love that forgives. The love of compassion. The love that is not judgmental.
The love that is unconditional. That love that we don’t deserve…then the world might be healed…one person at a time.

So the next time you receive someone else’s pain…try not to pass it along to the next person.
Pass your pain onto the Lord first, because He suffered and died on the cross for that pain…so that it could end there… so that the chain of pain could be broken.

Break the chain. Pass His Love.

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