Headache Empathy

When we were young most of us didn’t experience headaches, but we may have heard a parent, grandparent, or random adult complaining of having a headache. It’s difficult to explain to a child what that means. An aching head? What’s that?

At some point, we end up getting a headache later as we approach our teenage years. When it happens, we realize what all those adults were talking about. We get it, but we wish we didn’t. We don’t want to have to experience the ache to understand, but now we know.

Have you experienced pain in your past? As a human in a fallen world, of course, you have. Did you know that those scars give you something wonderful to offer others? You can identify with them. You can understand, in some sense, how they feel. When they tell you of their pain, you don’t have to look at them and wonder. You get it, and they know it. That matters to a lot of people. The haunting thought compounds much of our suffering that no one, absolutely no one has a clue what it was like to go through our grief. How liberating it is when that lie is shattered.

Your struggles can be the very thing that has the potential to heal others around you. Don’t underestimate the possibility of offering the story of your aching to the world. You don’t do it to sulk or say woe is me. It is a salve to those inconsolable. It can be vulnerable but also dignifying and freeing. We are forming a community of individuals that understand a life of imperfection and struggle. You can help us form this fellowship. We would enjoy hearing your story.