Pain

Lately this topic has been something that has been at the forefront of my life and those around me. Why Pain? Why do we suffer in life? Why do we experience deep heartache at times in life when we think nothing could go wrong? All of these questions are so hard to explain. It’s so easy to believe that there is a God who is for us when times are easy but it is so extremely hard to know that when you are facing deep pain and heartache.

When I was a young Christian in college I lost my brother and it was deeply painful for a time, but I soon worked myself to a place where I had to be ok with it. But months and months later my parents were both still deep in suffering and dealing with great loss. I remember thinking, “What is their problem. Why can’t they just get over this? God is so good. He can pull you through this.” Having never lost a child myself I had no understanding at all about their pain. I just kept living in my world of redemption and glory while all the while my parents were experiencing something that didn’t have so much glory. They were experiencing a world in fact that was completely and utterly void of glory and joy. I am now realizing that there is indeed a world out there of true pain, true suffering, and it at times can be unbearable.

Jesus said that we would have trouble in this life. I think pain and suffering is what he was talking about. All the while we still don’t understand it. We still cannot get our earthly minds around the deep loss and pain that life brings. Why does God not give us what our hearts desire? Why do we come so close sometimes to experiencing fullness in our lives and God takes it all away? Why does He allow us to experience deep loss? For some loss looks like the death of a loved one. For others that could mean never being initiated by someone who you long to have a relationship with. Yet others, who have given God their all are left sometimes feeling like doesn’t really care. Can I say that?

I was talking to my two friend’s Austin and Austin just yesterday about how pain really causes you to rethink the statement “I know God.” For a lot of us we have experienced God on an intimate level. We have felt his loving presence in our hearts as we worshiped, served others, or just exercised the gifts he’s given us. Romans tells us that none of us really know God though. No one seeks God. So we are left in the state of pain really truly realizing that we don’t know God in all his fullness. We, like Moses, have just gotten to look at where God “just us.”

When it comes to pain I believe that there is no explanation, no right answer. Maybe that is why Jesus ended his statement about trouble with “…but take heart, I have overcome the world.” Maybe we were never supposed to know. Maybe we are just called to sit in the storms of life and allow them to run their course. Maybe it’s not so much about the storm that Jesus wants us to focus on. Maybe it’s the end result.