{"id":1695,"date":"2015-06-15T00:20:06","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T00:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1695"},"modified":"2015-06-14T00:29:31","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T00:29:31","slug":"chronic-pain-going-into-the-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/06\/chronic-pain-going-into-the-wilderness.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Pain: Going into the Wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>
Image Courtesy of Janes Barker\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ah! Wilderness!<\/p>\n

I’ve always like that title for a book or a play. Not so fond of it as a description of what it’s like to live with chronic pain. But, so often,that\u00a0is<\/em> what it is like. Wilderness. Stark. Deserted. Hot, perhaps. Or, bitterly cold.. There’s no signpost to give direction. No oasis to give refreshment. But there are long stretches of earth – hard, stony, feet-planted-deep earth.<\/p>\n

Yup. Living with chronic pain can often feel like being in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

Jesus when into the desert, a kind of wilderness, to pray early into his ministry. There, he was tempted by the devil, who tried very hard to steer Our Lord from his path. He threw everything at Jesus, taunting him to call upon angels to bring Him relief.<\/p>\n

But, our Lord stuck by his intention, going into that desert.<\/p>\n

He went there to pray, and pray He did. And then, when it was time, He went about His work.<\/p>\n

What if, the next time we are in a wilderness of pain, we\u00a0dedicated it to prayer? What if, no matter how tempting it might be to turn against God in our desert of suffering, we turned\u00a0toward<\/em> Him. Completely.<\/p>\n

In that simple moment of decision, as we step into the desert, our decision to pray just might change the landscape. And change our lives.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah! Wilderness! I’ve always like that title for a book or a play. Not so fond of it as a description of what it’s like to live with chronic pain. But, so often,that\u00a0is what it is like. Wilderness. Stark. Deserted. Hot, perhaps. Or, bitterly cold.. There’s no signpost to give direction. No oasis to give…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1272,3,360,43,1242,4,1047,578,1420,1245,1236,95,1247,1246],"tags":[1763,30,1347,1760,1761,1762],"class_list":["post-1695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-praying-spirit-prayer-2","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-determination","category-encouragement-in-life","category-food-for-thought","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-good","category-goodness","category-pain-2","category-positive","category-prayer-2","category-prayers","category-rising-above-tragedy","category-uplifting","tag-changing-our-lives-with-prayer","tag-pain","tag-prayer-and-pain","tag-tempted-to-go-against-god","tag-the-desert-of-pain","tag-us-in-the-wilderness"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Pain: Going into the Wilderness - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/06\/chronic-pain-going-into-the-wilderness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Pain: Going into the Wilderness - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ah! Wilderness! I’ve always like that title for a book or a play. Not so fond of it as a description of what it’s like to live with chronic pain. But, so often,that\u00a0is what it is like. Wilderness. Stark. Deserted. Hot, perhaps. Or, bitterly cold.. There’s no signpost to give direction. 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Wilderness! I’ve always like that title for a book or a play. Not so fond of it as a description of what it’s like to live with chronic pain. But, so often,that\u00a0is what it is like. Wilderness. Stark. Deserted. Hot, perhaps. Or, bitterly cold.. There’s no signpost to give direction. 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1696,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions\/1696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}