When the incident happens, it’s like I’ve swallowed a rock. Once you’ve swallowed a rock, certain things are just going to happen. It’s not what I was designed to eat, but it’s happened.

I can expect several different kinds of pain along the way, varying in intensity. Once I swallow the rock, I know that this will come. I can make peace with it. It’s OK to feel bad right now. After all, I just swallowed a rock!

The best part of the image is that even though I can count on the pain, emotions, exhaustion, etc., I also know that it will run its course. I won’t always feel this way. Different sizes of rocks take different amounts of time to work through the system, but eventually, I’ll feel OK again.

This same kind of confidence in the midst of pain is what I see in Psalm 42 – “My tears have been my food day and night” (verse 3) moves to “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (verses 5 & 11).

Try to be at peace during your rock digestion process. It’s normal for you to feel some pretty serious discomfort. You may not be able to do everything you could do before swallowing the rock. But (at the risk of ruining a nice blog post with a horrible pun), “This too shall pass.”