| It scarcely defies reason that every human being | | | | terms, we grow. |
| feels pain--it is perpetual to the human experience. It | | | | Paul says, "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow |
| comes with the life at birth and never leaves until | | | | over into our lives, so also through Christ our |
| death. Pain is a condition of life this side of eternity; | | | | comfort overflows." -2 Corinthians 1:5 (TNIV). We |
| and for some, purgatory will last forever more, but | | | | never suffer alone. Yet, it's only those truly of Christ |
| that's a whole other debate and discussion! | | | | who can identify properly with and gain from the |
| Is there a purpose to pain, and is there a biblical | | | | purpose and wonder of pain--in its true and original |
| answer? It's a "yes" to both questions. There are | | | | context. |
| two examples right from the top of my head, both | | | | Others have no true idea how to best deal with it. |
| leading to the same destination. The relevance to | | | | They can only see what it costs them; it's an utterly |
| both is on what happens afterwards. But before we | | | | egocentric perspective. Yet, life is not really about us |
| explore those, let's dwell for a time on these | | | | in that way. There is so much more to see than |
| thoughts: | | | | purely from only our own viewpoints. It's from the |
| "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our | | | | overall life and growth perspective we derive real, |
| conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His | | | | sustaining comfort and hope. |
| megaphone to rouse a deaf world." -C.S. Lewis.[1] | | | | Discipline is part of the purpose: "At the time, |
| "The greatest sermons I have ever heard were not | | | | discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going |
| preached from pulpits but from sickbeds. The | | | | against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off |
| greatest, deepest truths of God's Word have often | | | | handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find |
| been revealed not by those who preached as a | | | | themselves mature in their relationship with God." |
| result of their seminary preparation and education, | | | | -Hebrews 12:11 (Msg). |
| but by those humble souls who have gone through | | | | There's a purpose to everything we experience in |
| the seminary of affliction and learned experientially | | | | life. There has to be--we have to believe it. We just |
| the deep things of the ways of God." -Dr. M.R. De | | | | don't always connect the dots. If only we could see |
| Haan.[2] (Italics mine.) | | | | visions from the perspective of hindsight and then |
| God doesn't waste pain. It's an intentional tool to | | | | we'd understand. |
| assist us for the future, whether that is on this earth | | | | The wonder is in the paradox. For the personal cost |
| or in eternity. The second quote draws on the truth | | | | of sacrifice for suffering well--in faith--there is a |
| that it's only those who've genuinely suffered who're | | | | spiritual benefit that can't be priced. The irony within |
| often able to minister the best, with the most | | | | the paradox is no one can understand this unless |
| readable sources of compassion. | | | | they see from God's viewpoint; through Christ, his |
| The "deeper magic" described in The Chronicles of | | | | life, death and resurrection. |
| Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a | | | | We must suffer well, in faith, with an open mind and |
| pleasant and congruent metaphor. It was the | | | | heart. It's the only card in the deck worth holding. |
| paradoxical nature of Aslan's suffering and sacrifice | | | | The alternative, blaming God or others for our |
| (an allegory for Christ's) that revealed the deeper | | | | problems, is a deliberately hellish choice. Reason |
| magic and crushed the otherwise ignorant white | | | | speaks for faith even though faith is not always |
| witch (Satan). The deeper magic could not be | | | | reason-able. |
| employed without the pain of sacrifice; a theorem | | | | Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights |
| completely foreign to our basic human experience. | | | | Reserved Worldwide. |
| Perhaps the only way to grow closer to God is | | | | ENDNOTES: |
| through such an experience of humbly accepting the | | | | [1] Martin R. De Haan II, Why Would a Good God |
| pain that comes our way. Here is part of the wonder | | | | Allow Suffering - Discovery Series Bible Study (Grand |
| of pain. We become inwardly shaped and matured | | | | Rapids, Michigan: RBC Ministries, 2001), p. 12. |
| people through the furnace of affliction. In simple | | | | [2] De Haan, Ibid, p. 27. |