About the Author

Brian grew up in Oklahoma City, spent 13 years in Colorado, and now resides in the Pacific Northwest. He’s been married for over 30 years and has two adult daughters.

Short bio

Brian
King

Brian King pastors Harvest Community Church in Eugene, Oregon. He’s been a pastor for more than 30 years. He’s no novice when it comes to pain, having survived brain trauma, chronic headaches, and nearly losing his ability to walk. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies from Oklahoma Baptist University and a Master of Divinity from Gateway Seminary. When he’s not working, you’ll find him spending time with family and friends enjoying the outdoor beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

Understands pain personally including chronic pain, grief, anger, and fatigue.

Comforts people walking through grief, disease, depression, addiction, and more.

Walks with Pastors in pain and burnout toward health and recovery.

Pain tempts me to feel something specific about God. In short, pain tempts me to feel something other than God’s goodness and to miss the thousands of other times that God has been good to me. In an instant, pain in one place makes me forget the good in other places.

Brian King

Why I Wrote Letters to My Friends in Pain

To Process My Own Pain

I’m not unique. I have physical pain. Some of them are significant. Yet I recognize there are many other people in more pain than me. Emotional pain. I feel that too. Whether emotional, mental, physical, or relational, pain is universal.

Everyone Deals with Pain

Every person we know wrestles with pain. Most of us do it quietly. Not opening up about how heavy it is to carry this burden. Alone. We cry out. We isolate. We run from it. Can we be honest about something? We are not well. Individually. Culturally. Even – spiritually – we are not well. We bury our pain, and others pay the price down the road. We numb our pain, and our body pays the consequence anyway.

Pastors are Hurting Too

Pastors are tired. A myriad of reasons, but primarily it’s because we help people carry their pain. It’s heavy. And many of us pastors are not well. Many of us are bummed out and burned out. We’re just now beginning to see the consequences of leading through a generational crisis over the last four years. Pain is normal. Burnout doesn’t have to be.

A Better Way to Process Our Pain

Let’s be straight. The vast majority of us don’t handle pain well. For every person who does, there are dozens of us numbing, escaping, burying, and running from it. In walking with addicts, sinners, and frankly – just human beings, I’ve noticed a common pattern among those who do not handle their pain well. I call it The Pity Vortex. We’re sucked into a way of thinking that pushes us away from healthy living. Even more, it pushes us away from Jesus. There has to be a better way to handle our pain. There is.

Fatigue and Faith

My own experience with chronic pain and chronic fatigue left me wondering: Can we be stronger? Is Scripture right when it says, “When I am weak, then I am strong”? Is it really possible to be strengthened in the Lord? How does that work? Is there a way to persevere in the face of chronic pain and fatigue, or worse, woundedness and trauma? Yes. I outline five pivotal choices, called The Perseverance Revolution, that when made rightly and consistently, build resilient faith, stronger minds, relational bonds, and internal strength.

A Journey Together

In Letters to My Friends in Pain, I’ll take us on a journey through five shifts to our mindset that determine the difference between pity and perseverance. It’s a journey I would love for you to take with me and some of my friends in pain. I’m not promising I will remove the pain in your life, but I am pointing us to the One who will one day end pain, suffering, sin, grief, and death – forever.