Do The Work with Harold McGhee Jr.

Ep. 20 Resurrection Power: When Life Tries to Crucify You But Can't Keep You Down

• Harold McGhee Jr. • Episode 20

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What if your greatest pain is actually preparation for your greatest purpose? That profound question anchors this special Resurrection Sunday episode where we explore how our deepest struggles often become our most powerful ministry qualifications.

Drawing inspiration from Jesus' experience of the cross, we discover something remarkable about suffering. In Gethsemane, Jesus demonstrated what modern psychology would call acute stress response—even sweating drops of blood, a condition known as hematidrosis that occurs only under extreme distress. Yet this ultimate stressor led to resurrection and the declaration that "all authority in heaven and earth" had been given to Him.

This pattern of stress transforming into strength isn't just spiritual theory. Modern research on post-traumatic growth shows that 50-60% of trauma survivors report profound positive transformations: deeper relationships, greater compassion, discovered personal strength, new life possibilities, and enhanced spiritual connection. Through compelling biblical examples like Joseph and David, alongside contemporary stories, we see how suffering becomes specialized knowledge that equips us with unique authority.

The seven-step "sacred pathway" offers a practical framework for transforming your pain into purpose: honestly acknowledging your pain, processing it in community, finding redemptive meaning, developing specialized knowledge, sharing your healed wounds as testimony, accepting your new authority, and creating resurrection structures that build lasting legacy from your redeemed suffering.

Your crucible moment—that stress that feels like it might break you—could be exactly what God uses to make you a healer of others. But only if you trust the process from garden to grave to glory, just as Jesus did. This resurrection principle transforms our greatest stress into our greatest strength and purpose.

Speaker 1:

All right, we are recording. All right. All right, so what's good, family? Welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited, so let me move this back some. All right, what's good, family, welcome back to the podcast. I am glad. I am so glad that you're here today because we're diving into something special and we're going to be doing an episode in honor of Resurrection Sunday.

Speaker 1:

So at the time of me recording this, easter is the next coming Sunday, and so this episode is inspired by none other than the work, the finished work, of Jesus on the cross right, and I believe that what we're discussing today has the potential to completely transform how you view your struggles, your pain and those moments when life feels like it's about to crush you right. So, before we skedaddle right into the heart of this topic, let me just say how this message came to be Right. So I had just finished writing two episodes for for Stress Awareness Month in April. So I just finished writing those two episodes One, they're still going to be dropping, one is on marital stress and one is on parenting stress. Parenting stress, okay. And I was at church and my pastor was talking about being willing to die for the gospel, like Jesus did, like the disciples did, like many people did, and that sparked an idea of stress, of the cross for Jesus and the idea that our greatest stressors often become our greatest ministry areas and qualifiers for that next level of influence and authority in our lives. And so think about that for a second. Think about it the very thing that causes you the most pain, the most stress, that's often the exact place that God is preparing you to have the most impact and authority. And don't take it from me I've seen this play out in my own life repeatedly. My childhood trauma became a pathway to help others heal. My struggles with ADHD became a platform to help others maximize their unique brain wiring. Even through my teaching, I'm seeing how that has been a blessing. My marriage and my marital challenges have become the very crucible that forged my identity and my ability to guide other couples through their difficulties to guide other couples through their difficulties. Okay, so those things in my life that causes that caused me the greatest stress were often what God was using. But I'm but I'm not the example that I want to focus on today. Right, I want us to look at Jesus Christ himself and the finished work he accomplished that we celebrate on Easter Sunday. All right, this is my Easter Sunday, our Resurrection Sunday podcast special right.

Speaker 1:

And so have you ever really thought about the cross from Jesus's perspective? I know we've seen the movies about the cross, we saw the plays about the cross, we read the scriptures about the cross, but have you thought about it from his perspective, not just theologically, but emotionally and psychologically? Because the garden of Gethsemane gives us a rare glimpse into the crisis or Jesus's humanity? Like the dude was sweating drops of blood, asking if the cup could pass from him from God, asking if the cup could pass from him from God, experiencing what modern psychology would identify as acute stress response. Like that's what he was going through getting ready for the cross. And so Luke, who was a physician, he documents that Jesus sweat drops of blood, sweat drops of blood, which is a condition that we now know as as uh hermitidosis and which occurs under extreme uh stress. And uh, it's when your capillaries and the sweat glands rupture, like they explode, you know, and that's a uh physiological stress response. That happens only in the most extreme circumstances.

Speaker 1:

And the cross wasn't just the plan of salvation, right, it was also the greatest stressor Jesus faced as a human, as a human being. That was the greatest stressor of the cross, and what happened after he endured that stress was the resurrection, which didn't just overcome the grave but established his ultimate authority in heaven and on earth. So this pattern that I'm talking about when it goes stress, suffering, then strength and authority this isn't just a spiritual principle, because modern neuroscience and trauma research are now confirming what scripture has been teaching us all along. And so today, inspired by the resurrection power we celebrate on Easter Sunday, we're going to unpack this connection between our stress and our strength, our suffering and our service, our trauma and our testimony. Come on, somebody, all right. And so there's what I call the paradox of redemptive suffering.

Speaker 1:

Here's where most of us get it wrong. We view stress and suffering as purely negative experiences to be avoided at all costs. Right. And our culture, the world we live in, is constantly selling us on comfort, convenience and the elimination of all discomfort. Right, that's literally the marketing plan for our culture, the westernized world. It's like how can I eliminate discomfort and get what I want at a convenient and comfortable place, location, price, whatever? But what if the greatest, your greatest pain is actually your preparation? Can you think about that? What if the greatest stress that you're going through is actually your greatest preparation.

Speaker 1:

Think about Joseph in the Bible. His brothers sold him into slavery. He was falsely accused. He was in prison for years. Talk about trauma. But later he tells his brothers. He says you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, for good. So his suffering wasn't just random pain, it was preparation for his ultimate purpose. Or consider David, who spent years running for his life from Saul the dude was legit chasing him to kill him and that was his father-in-law, that was his king, that was his dude. And Saul. And he was doing this before he became Israel's greatest king. Because his suffering shaped his leadership and gave us many of the Psalms that we still rely on and comforts many people thousands of years later.

Speaker 1:

Because the research on post-traumatic growth is fascinating here. Because when I look at the lives of Joseph, when I look at the lives of David, when I look at the different people in the Bible that has gone through these crazy things, the life of Jesus, the research, modern day research, tells us. For instance, let me give you Dr Richard Tedeschi and Dr Lawrence Calhoun they coined the term in the 90s, in the 1990s the post-traumatic growth. That's the term that they coined to describe how people often experience profound challenges and changes after enduring severe stress and trauma. Their research shows us that about 50 to 60% of trauma survivors report some form of positive transformation, and that positive transformation was in the form of either deeper, more meaningful relationships, a greater compassion for others because of what they've gone through, discovery of personal strength that they didn't know that they even had that's something that I experienced New possibilities and purpose in life that opens up because they made it to the other side of that trauma and that stress, or even enhanced spiritual connection and meaning your purpose in life.

Speaker 1:

Right, so does that sound familiar? Because these are the very qualities that we need for effective ministry. And when I say effective ministry, that could be anything your life's work, your life's purpose, because this isn't just psychology, catching up to scripture. No, it's neurological, it's a neurological reality, and when we experience stress, our brains have the capacity for neuroplasticity. And neuroplasticity that literally means the rewiring and creating new neural pathways in your brain, and this is why therapists or therapies like EMDR can help transform traumatic memories into sources of strength is because they're just using what the Bible already told us was possible and that's taken, that stress, that pain, that trauma, and transforming it to something very, very powerful.

Speaker 1:

Because the fact of the matter is, I used to be embarrassed about my past, the addiction, the broken relationships, the struggles. But I've come to understand that these weren't just obstacles to overcome, they were qualifications that God was building in me. Overcome they were qualifications that God was building in me because Paul writes in second Corinthians, um one, three and four. He says praise be to the God and father of our Lord, jesus Christ, the father of compassion, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort that we ourselves receive from God. I know that was a mouthful, but notice the sequence here. Notice that first we receive comfort in our troubles and then we're equipped, we're qualified, we're prepared, we're apt to comfort others.

Speaker 1:

So our ministry authority, our life's purpose authority, our life's work authority, literally comes from our pain points and our greatest stressors. This is important, the stress and suffering itself. It isn't automatically redemptive, because Jesus didn't just suffer, he suffered with trust in the Father's purpose. He says, not my will but yours be done. So he was trusting God in the process. This is what I call redemptive suffering. And that's redemptive suffering is when the pain that's processed through trust, surrender and, ultimately, resurrection. It's not about just enduring hardship, it's following or allowing that hardship to be transformed into healing.

Speaker 1:

Let me give you a modern example. So my friend Jeremy grew up with a father who struggled with alcoholism. Right, and for years this was Jeremy's greatest source of pain and shame. But after his own journey of healing, jeremy now runs one of the most effective addiction recovery ministries that I've ever seen yo. And his authority doesn't come from a textbook, it comes from the trenches of his own experience. Right, because let's face it, when people in recovery speak to Jeremy, they don't just hear words of encouragement, they encounter someone who has walked through the valley and found a way out. And that's an authority that can't be taught in seminary, it can't be gained through a certification program.

Speaker 1:

Now, I'm not saying God causes all of our suffering. Don't put that on me, that's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is Don't put that on me, that's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is much. Because the fact is, much of our pain comes from living in a broken world. When people ask me, harold, why did this happen to me? Why did this happen to my family member? Why did this happen to my loved one? We live in a fallen and broken world, and a lot of times our suffering comes from our own choices or from the harmful actions that other people are doing towards us, people that get caught up in trafficking. You can't blame them for being a victim of trafficking, but what I am saying is that God doesn't waste our pain. He's in the redemption business, taking what was meant to destroy us and transforming it into what propels us, into our purpose. All right. So, just like the cross, what appeared to be a defeat to Jesus became the very mechanism of victory.

Speaker 1:

And I don't think it's a coincidence that we celebrate Easter or Resurrection Sunday in April, and April has been identified as the stress awareness month. Okay, Because the cross was Jesus's ultimate stressor, right and so how do we actually do this? How do we take our greatest stressors and transform them into our greatest sources of ministry, influence and authority? Right and so, if you've been listening to me, you know that I love to give practical advice. I love to back up my biblical worldview with research and academia and science, but I also want to give you practical things that you can use, because if God is God, he's not going to be disproved, he's only going to be confirmed right.

Speaker 1:

And so I want to share with you what I call the sacred pathway right, and it's a process that I've observed both in scripture and in the lives of people who have successfully turned their pain into purpose. And before I outline these steps, let me remind you of something very profound yet, and also very important, especially as we consider the finished work of Jesus that we celebrate on Easter Sunday. As we consider the finished work of Jesus that we celebrate on Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead, he didn't just overcome the stress of the cross, it wasn't just like a byproduct of dying. He was given all power and authority over the grave. And precisely because he trusted the process, jesus trusted the process and was given all power and authority. Matthew 28, 18 tells us that after the resurrection, jesus declared all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So his suffering led to unprecedented authority. His suffering led to leveling up, or a glow up, as we would say. The same principle applies to us when we follow the sacred pathway. This sacred pathway is modeled after the path that Jesus took on the cross.

Speaker 1:

And so step number one is to acknowledge the reality of your pain. John 11, 35. Most of us heard description for the first time on barbershop Jesus wept. That's the first part of the first step is acknowledging the reality of your pain. And Jesus did that he wept. And so the first step is simple but profound. The first step is simple but profound. Stop pretending, stop Stop minimizing. Name your pain for what it is and Gethsemane.

Speaker 1:

Jesus didn't spiritualize his stress or pretend it wasn't happening. No, he he says in his own words, he was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He named his reality, he named his pain. He named his reality, he named his pain, and research from Dr Brene Brown has consistently shown that we can't selectively numb our emotions. When we try to numb pain, we end up numbing joy. Source of stress or pain right now, or trauma, whatever it is. Trauma, pain, stress is, it's all. It's all a stressor is all stemmed from a stressor, and so don't spiritualize it away. Name it honestly before God, just like David did in many of his Psalms and just like Jesus did in the garden. Okay. So name your pain, because when we acknowledge our pain. We're not showing a lack of faith. No, we're following the example of Christ, who was honest about his suffering. So that's what we got to do we got to be honest about our suffering, acknowledge that there's pain.

Speaker 1:

Step number two process your pain in community. I am working on a do the work starter kit that's geared around my ICU framework and the ICU framework is it's like ICU. The letter I, the letter C, the letter U, but it's also a play on words where I see you like in community. And the I is for identity. You have to identify, you have to know yourself before you can help someone else. You have to be able to identify what's going on in your own life before you can start identifying what's going on is for connection Okay. And then the the U is for unity, which is finding support outside of yourself and unifying together. So, and I say all that to say, step two is the process your pain and community.

Speaker 1:

Mark 14, 33 says then he took Peter, james and John along with him, and he was going to the garden to pray because he was going to be taken so that he could die on the cross, and he took his friends with him. So even Jesus didn't process his greatest stress alone. In the darkest hour, he brought his closest friends with him to the garden to pray. And so the neurological concept of co-regulation is powerful here, and when we process pain in the presence of safe people, our nervous system can regulate in ways that it simply cannot when we're alone and isolated, and so that's basically a scientific way of saying look, you need you a safe community to process the pain that you're going through. Because Kirk Thompson, who's a psychiatrist and an author of the Soul of Shame, he explains that our brains are literally wired for connection, which is why, in ICU, the C is for connection, and shame and trauma drive us toward isolation, but healing happens in community, and so a practical way that you can can apply.

Speaker 1:

Step two is to identify two or three safe people with whom you can share your struggle with and be honest about it. You know, this might be a counselor, this might be a pastor, this might be a friend or support group, but whoever you find, share not just what happened to you but how it affected you emotionally and spiritually, because the reason I want you to do this is the enemy wants your pain to isolate you, but God wants your pain to connect you, first to himself and then to others, because healing happens in community. Step number three find the redemptive meaning. What do you mean by that, harold? In Romans 8, 28, it says and I love this scripture. It says and we know that all things work, all things, god, I'm sorry, let me get this right. Uh, romans 8, 28 says and we know that in all things, god works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. God works all things together, uh, for our good, for those who love him and have been called according to his purpose. And this step is not about slapping a slimp up and this step is not about slapping a simplistic. Everything happens for a reason. Man, on your pain. That's not what it's about.

Speaker 1:

It's about actively partnering with God to discover how suffering might be redeemed, and not just suffering in general, but this specific suffering that you're going through, principle in psychology, is called meaning making. It's very important because Dr Franco, who wasa Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, he observed that those who survive the concentration camps they wasn't physically the strongest, but it was those who found meaning in their suffering. Those are the ones who survived the concentration camps, not the strong in might, but the strong in meaning. And so Jesus found meaning in his suffering by focusing on, in his own words, the joy set before him. He says he focused on the joy set before him, the redemptive purpose of the cross.

Speaker 1:

And so, practically speaking, just ask yourself what has this painful experience taught me that I wouldn't have learned otherwise? I've asked myself that before. Or you could ask yourself how has it made me more compassionate, more aware of God's presence, more equipped to help others? And then just write it down. Write down at least three ways that your perspective has deepened throughout this struggle or this pain that you're going through. Right, which brings us to step number four develop specialized knowledge. Now, this is something that I might have added because I'm entrepreneurially minded, but in Isaiah 53, it says he was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. So your stress has given you specialized knowledge that others don't have. Your suffering has made you an expert in areas that people with comfortable lives know nothing about. Think about it Jesus doesn't just theoretically understand our suffering. No, doesn't just theoretically understand our suffering. No, hebrews tells us that he was tempted in every way, just as we are. His suffering gave him experiential knowledge of human pain. He wasn't just saying look, man, I feel for you, I theologically know what you're going through, buddy. No, he experienced it through his suffering.

Speaker 1:

And in the mental health field, we're increasingly recognizing the value of lived experience alongside clinical expertise, and so many of the most effective mental health advocates are those who have navigated their own mental health challenges. That's why I incorporate so many of my own stories into what I do is because experience, along with expertise, is like a game changer. So, on a practical standpoint, just list out the specific insights that you've gained through your suffering that someone who hasn't experienced what you have might not understand. What do you know about divorce? What do you know about addiction or loss or illness or whatever your struggle or stress has been? That gives you a unique perspective. Okay, because one thing that I know for sure is every time you go through something, your perspective on life is changed, because this specialized knowledge is part of your qualification for ministry in that area. Okay, step number second Corinthians 12, nine says I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that crisis power may rest on me. So step number five is this this step requires tremendous courage.

Speaker 1:

It's the willingness to let your healed wound become visible to others as a testimony and notice. I said healed wound. Don't be out here trying to show people your bleeding wound that you haven't even healed from yet. You still. You just got shot and you trying to show them your wound and it's gushing blood. No, I don't do that, let it heal. There's a timing element here, because Jesus didn't minister from the cross. He wasn't hanging up there talking about look, y'all, y'all. No, he ministered from the resurrection but the wounds were still visible. Because Thomas, when he walked through the door and Thomas was like, look bro, you might be a ghost Thomas could touch the wound on his side and he was like, all right, you him, you are him.

Speaker 1:

And so research on vulnerability from Dr Brown vulnerability from Dr Brown, uh, bernay Brown shows that um, appropriate vulnerability, not oversharing, um, but authentic openness about our struggles. It creates a connection and influence. That's why I'm not ashamed to share things that God has brought me victory over, because it gives me connection with those who are in that. But it also gives me influence because it's hope. It's like look, he's been there, he's done it and he's come out on the other side you can do the same thing, and so my practical encouragement for step five is start small. Share your story with one person who might benefit from hearing how you navigated your pain, and then pay attention to what resonates with them. Notice how your story creates an immediate connection, and then build from there, and the more you share it and the more selective you are about how you share it, the more influence and connection you'll have when you share it. That was good, all right.

Speaker 1:

Step number six man, I'm almost done. Um, accept your new authority. This is very, very important. Matthew 28, 18, as we read earlier, says um, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So God, or Jesus, accepted his new authority. After resurrection comes authority. This is the principle that we see with Jesus, and it applies to us as well. There's a humility here, though, but also a confidence, and that confidence is not in yourself, but it's in what God has done through your suffering. It's not in yourself, but it's in what God has done through your suffering. You've been through the first, the first. You've been through the fire and emerged with gold. You've been crucified with Christ, and now you live with a resurrection authority in that area that you've overcome Because Dan Allender, who's a trauma specialist and theologian, calls this leading with a limp, or, as my brother, jonathan McReynolds, would call his song Limp Because your wound becomes part of your credibility.

Speaker 1:

And so I want you to identify one area where your suffering has given you authority to speak, lead and minister, or serve and make, and then make a commitment to step into that authority, not with arrogance or pride, but with the quiet confidence of someone who has been tested and transformed. All right. And then the last step, step number seven, is create resurrection structures. Okay, harold, what is a resurrection structure? Jeremiah 30, 19 says from them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. And the final step is to create structures that allow your redeemed pain to become ongoing ministry, ongoing service, ongoing, whatever this might be a support group, a book, a nonprofit organization, a podcast like this one that you're listening to now, or simply an intentional mentoring relationship with someone who needs to know how you got through what you got through. All right.

Speaker 1:

And so the point is to create something that outlasts your immediate testimony it's all about legacy, baby Something that creates ongoing impact from your redeeming suffering. I tell people all the time they say Harold, what'd you do, what's your about, what's your brand? I help couples and families love, hard, work smarter and build a legacy that lasts, and resurrection structures help you build that legacy. From the redeemed suffering. Okay, because, look at it, jesus didn't just rise and then skedaddle off to heaven. No, he established the church, and the church is a resurrection structure that will continue the Lord's ministry long after he ascended. That's resurrection structure at its finest. Like that is the blueprint, that's the cheat code.

Speaker 1:

And so, practically what is one concrete way that you can structure ministry from your healed wound? It doesn't have to be big and formal. It might be as simple as a monthly coffee meeting with someone walking through what you've experienced in life. In life, that's all. Don't overcomplicate it, but do something. Have a resurrection structure that you're leaving okay. And so here's what I want you to understand as we wrap up this episode inspired by the finished work of Jesus that we celebrate on Easter Sunday Resurrection Sunday. That we celebrate on Easter Sunday Resurrection Sunday.

Speaker 1:

When Jesus endured the stress of the cross, he wasn't just suffering through it, he was being qualified by it. After resurrection, he declared all authority has been given to me. The cross wasn't just something that he survived. No, it was the very pathway to his elevated authority. And so I want to remind you your greatest stress isn't just something to endure and forget. It's potentially the very qualification that God is building in you for your greatest kingdom impact, because neuroscience confirms that post-traumatic growth is real. It's real and the psychology validates it.

Speaker 1:

Meaning-making, transforms suffering, and scripture proclaims that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us. There it is. That's the resurrection structures, that's the purpose and the pain, your crucible moment, that stress that has felt like it might break you, could it be the very thing that God uses to make you a healer of others, but only If you'll trust the process, just like Jesus did. Trust the process From the garden to the grave, to the glory of the resurrection. This is the sacred pathway, this is what transforms our greatest stress into our greatest strength. All right until next time. Remember your pain isn't just pain, because in the hands of God is preparation for purpose. And one last thing y'all don't skedaddle away from this podcast without subscribing, so that you don't miss the upcoming episodes. I promise you're going to love them. All right.