The Good Pain

Gabby Gingras, age 7, is incapable of feeling any pain. She runs headlong into a table, bounces off, falls down, and gets up to run off without even a whimper. A blessing, right? Think again. When she was teething, Gabby gnawed on her own fingers, mutilating them until her parents had all of her teeth pulled out to prevent her from further harm to herself. She wears goggles all the time, since she damaged her cornea so badly with her own fingernails that she is now blind in one eye! The little girl has a bizarre disorder in which the pain sensors in her body never developed.

Pain serves a very useful purpose. It keeps us from unintentionally damaging our bodies!

Many in the generation of Americans who are now reaching adulthood are incapable of dealing with life's challenges. They can't hold a job, meet deadlines, or finish a task without direct supervision. Their parents intently worked to spare them difficulties all through their childhood. They hovered over-protectively and rode to the rescue of their child at the slightest sign of his discomfort. If the child protested, rules were changed. Teachers were forced to coddle these little darlings; moving paper due dates, giving re-tests, and generally lowering any standards perceived to cause their students feel 'stress.' It was all in the name of love, a misguided love that has developmentally handicapped millions of kids. These kids are perpetual toddlers, having never dealt with appropriate adversity that helps us to come to emotional maturity, to learn how to get along with difficult people, to push through unpleasant circumstances towards a desired goal.

I know that suffering is awful! I see it up close almost weekly in my ministry. I've known disappointment, sorrow, and pain in my own life. Some suffering is so horrific, caused by such terrible evil, that with my admittedly limited perspective, I can find no good purpose for it. Far be it from me to minimize anyone's situation with platitudes.

However, would you allow that there is a kind of adversity that is good for us? James tells us to "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." (James 1:2-4, The Message) Paul tells us that he went through such awful and painful circumstances, he concluded that death was imminent. Later on, he said, "As a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:9, NLT)

Jacob was a deceiving, manipulative person! He cheated his foolish brother out of his birthright with a bowl of soup. He tricked his own aging, blind father into giving him the family blessing by pretending to be his brother. He defrauded his father-in-law in pursuit of greater wealth. Despite the promise of God's blessing, he tried to live life on his own terms. But, in a moment of fear, at a time when he was attempting to go back to his father's country and thought his brother Esau would seek vengeance; Jacob met God! All night he wrestled with the Lord and just before daybreak, the Lord threw his hip out of joint and left him with a limp, a physical reminder of the encounter. In addition, he gave him a new name, Israel, which means "he struggles with God." He was a changed man and limped the rest of his life.

Who wants to limp? Not me, unless it serves as a reminder of a time when God came down and reordered my priorities. Then, perhaps a limp would help to keep me from becoming the same old miserable man again. Every time I felt the catch in my step, it would be a merciful blessing. Paul struggled with some unspecified physical malady. Many preachers guess at it, but that's all we can do. He never tells us what it was, but he was clear why he suffered. Take a close look. "I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me."
(2 Corinthians 12:7-9, NLT)

Believer, there are things about the provision of God and the ugliness of our human nature that we are simply unwilling to seek to know apart from the pressure of suffering. Yes, I know that God is our Deliverer and our Healer. It is good and right that we should ask Him for relief. But, we need to trust Him when He does not give us what we ask for!

I'll weep with those who weep, even as I pray for the purpose of God to be accomplished. I'll pray in full faith for healing, hope, and deliverance from every evil, even as I take my cue from the Lord Jesus Christ, who prayed as He faced the terror of the Cross- "Father, not my will, but Yours be done!"
________________

Thru my disappointments,
Strife and discontentment,
I cast my ev'ry care on the Lord,
No matter what obsession,
Pain or deep depression,
I'm standing on the Solid Rock.

I'm standing on the Rock of Ages,
Safe from all the storm that rages,
Rich but not from Satan's wages,
I'm standing on the Solid Rock.

I'm Standing on the Solid Rock
Harold Lane © 1977 Ben Speer Music (Admin. by Integrated Copyright Group, Inc.)
CCLI License No. 810055