What Doesn't Kill You

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
Or hurts, maims, scars, and disfigures you.
Let's be honest - pain hurts. I'm allergic to pain.
We all can put up with some level of pain; we all have a certain threshold for it.
Some have higher thresholds, others lower, but we all can put up with a certain level of it. 
Those hospital "pain scales", where you try to describe your pain according to the level of stress depicted on the smiley faces on the chart ... aren't really all that helpful.
"How bad is your pain, sir?"
Hmm. "1" looks like I'm not in pain at all, just happy to be here, really. "10" is the worst pain in my life. Is this really the worst I've ever felt? Well, it hurt really bad when that car fell on me, and I'm pretty sure that being stepped on by an elephant or being bitten by a hippopotamus would be worse than this spike in my arm, so ...
"Five?"
How bad is the emotional pain I'm feeling right now? Is there a scale for that? Probably. Is it accurate? Doubtful. I mean, is it comparative, too? Comparative to my own pain, or to yours? How do I know if my pain is worse or less than your pain? I can't. 
I've never (thank God!) lost a child to death. But I have friends who have. In no situation I can imagine would I go up to them and tell them I understand their pain. I can't! I have never lost a child, and pray that I never do. The only way I can understand their pain is if I have lost a child at the same age as theirs, in the same way, in the same circumstances.
Going through divorce and separation causes its own brand of pain. I know several other people who have either just been through a divorce, or are going through one now. One man I know, just a couple of weeks after his wife demanded a divorce, has now found out details about his marriage that he never knew - things that have devastated him. 
I understand the pain of separation and divorcing, of children living in separate households in separate states, of losing employment and ministry, and starting over in virtually every area of my life. But I don't completely understand the pain this man is going through, because his circumstances are different from mine.
I have grown accustomed to certain pains in my body. Most of these are arthritic joints due to various injuries over the years. I have some nerve damage in one leg, also, that occasionally causes it to feel like it is being burned over a fire. This pain can be very intense, lasting minutes or weeks. 
Since it is not hurting at this moment, I am not living in pain at the moment. When it flares up again - with no warning - I will most likely get used to it at some level, and learn to live with it until it goes away again. 
Getting used to the pain does not mean, however, that the pain is not real or that it has lessened.
I am getting used to the emotional pain of all this, but that doesn't mean the pain has lessened or is not real.
I'm not sure that the pain will make me stronger if it doesn't kill me, but I know God can make me stronger through all of this. In fact, I'm trusting Him to do exactly that. 
My faith will be stronger, my ability to trust in Him will be stronger, and my love for Him will be stronger. 
So thank God for that.