Deep Pain with Dr.Mark Talbot

Ever faced pain? I mean real pain, deep pain, defining pain? Stay
tuned as we look today at “Deep Pain with Dr. Mark Talbot” author
of “When the Stars Disappear”.


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There was one wooded winding road at the bottom of a hill right
at the midpoint of my 20-minute jaunt to Jim’s house. It seemed
like a long way in my early teens, traversing the way only teens
can do, unabashedly combining quick sprints, slow jogs, periodic
skipping, and rarely a normal walking gait. Somehow this hollow
at the bottom of the hill at the end of Murdstone Road seemed
special, the terrain prohibiting the constant suburban sprawl for
a few hundred yards as the woods grew wild. By this point in my
journey, I was ready for some deeper reflection, a safe distance
from the place of my fear called home. Few would have guessed the
content of the conversation I permitted myself to speak out loud
in this private hollow. Almost always it was filled with
prayerful questions reflecting confusion about the pain and fear
I lived in on Murdstone Road, one of the least safe places I ever
have experienced in life.


I asked God to do things on that stretch of road I would never
have done in public. “Please God, just lift me up and transport
me ten feet so I can know you really exist.” I’d close my eyes as
I continued walking, waiting to feel the lift, and then laughing
at my own silliness. I knew God didn’t play those games, but I
thought it would be nice and surely strengthen my faith in the
midst of the pain nightmare I called home.


Pain comes in a lot of forms. We could begin putting adjectives
in front of the noun and be here all day, or we could turn it
into an adjective and talk about all of the painful people,
experiences, churches, muscles, thoughts…you get the idea.


So today we turn for help to an unusual place. A real philosopher
of all things.   


Let’s welcome Dr. Mark Talbot to Church Hurts And.


Dr. Mark Talbot encourages support of
www.christianscholarsfund.org.


Dr. John Bash is a shepherd with Standing Stone, a ministry that
ministers to ministers, a need as important in this time as any
in our lifetime. Consider joining this support team at
www.churchhurtsand.org.