Belinda Elliott

The pain struck at 2 a.m. waking me from what had been a very peaceful sleep. It took a moment to realize what was happening. Did someone just plunge a dagger into my back and side? Upon further examination I found no dagger, but something was definitely wrong. I had never felt pain like this before!

I woke up my husband and broke the news. We’d be spending the next several hours in the emergency room. After a few hours and several doses of heavy-duty narcotics, the pain lowered to a more tolerable level and the doctor informed me I had a kidney stone.

“It’s small enough that you should be able to pass it at home with no trouble,” she said. Apparently, squeezing a jagged rock through a tube about half as wide as a pencil eraser isn’t cause for alarm among medical professionals.

I’ve heard the pain of kidney stones is comparable to that of labor. I’ve never delivered a child, so I can’t confirm or deny this fact. Whether it is true or not, I was quite surprised at the difference in treatments between the two conditions. When women give birth, doctors offer drugs to help ease the pain and they help guide the baby out. For kidney stones, they send you home with some less-than-adequate pain medication and instructions that amount to something along the lines of: “Good luck with that. Try to catch the ‘baby’ when it comes out so we’ll know what kind it is.”

I spent the next six days in “labor.”

I was in agony. I’m also ashamed to say my faith took a bit of a hit as well. I began the week with a confident “this too shall pass” attitude. By day three, I was crying out to God, begging Him, “Please, just roll the stone away!” By day five, I was pretty aggravated with Him. Why wasn’t He stopping the suffering? It would only take one word from my all-powerful Creator and I’d be healed. What was His deal?

It had already been a rough few months. My father passed away very unexpectedly just three months prior to this, turning my world upside down. I had never experienced such deep loss and grief. Now it seemed my physical pain matched the intensity of the emotional wounds in my soul.

Have you ever been there? Whether the pain is physical or emotional, we all go through seasons of suffering. It’s not something most pastors mention when they present the gospel. We don’t learn it in Vacation Bible School, yet Scripture spells it out clearly.

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Just a week before my kidney stone saga, my pastor had preached about Daniel. As I read through the familiar story of Daniel in the lions’ den, one factor stood out. God didn’t intervene in a way that kept Daniel from having to go through that experience. Instead, God allowed him to be tossed into a den of hungry lions and then protected him while he was there (Daniel 6).

It seems sometimes God allows us to walk through trials to remind us of how closely He walks with us. And though our Savior does promise to deliver us, His deliverance isn’t always immediate. In fact, it isn’t always during our life on earth.

Fortunately, my deliverance came on the sixth day when the kidney stone finally passed. But for many of us, there are some wounds that won’t be healed until we get to Heaven. Yet the promise of Heaven is what we can hold to during the tough times. Not only is God with us through any trial that we face—strengthening us and upholding us—He has also promised a day with no more trials or sorrows.

Are you in a season of suffering? Rest assured that God sees what you are going through. He will sustain you. Hold tightly to your hope in Christ.

One day, this too shall pass.

For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne will shepherd them; He will guide them to springs of living waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Revelation 7:17