Video Challenge Day 14: Why Pain?

{chisel} {chisel} {chisel}
Man:  This hurts!
God:  This hurts me more than it hurts you.
Man:  eye roll..."Right"
{chisel}
Man: OUCH!  I don't think you understand this pain!
God:  Don't talk to me about pain!  I know all about pain! I sent my Son to die on the cross for pain, for sin, but I also did it for another reason:  to give you freedom...

The statement is true, no pain, no gain.  Why?  Because pain provokes us to action.  It is easy to contentedly rest in our sin, especially when we are surrounded by other sinners. But pain is different.  Pain stands out, while pleasure is easily ignored.  Gluttons at a buffet can easily shovel food into their mouths and pretend it's normal, but put a screaming kid in the middle of that buffet, and THAT is where all your attention goes.  C.S. Lewis said, "God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain.  Pain is his megaphone to a deaf world."

For far too long we have sat in our pit of sinful pleasure.  Now, God turns to his children and says, "I need to chisel some of that away."  It pains our Heavenly Father to watch his children go through pain, but he knows the end result will make us healthier and happier.  If you ever try to help an injured animal, they will struggle against you in an attempt to run away.  But picture a scene from your childhood.  Remember what you did when the doctor said you were going to need a shot?  You tightly wrapped your arms around your parent and squeezed as tight as you could.  Maybe you were like my sister who screamed, "No daddy, no daddy, no daddy, NO."  The pain experience brings the child closer to the parent.

None of us LIKE to see people in pain, especially our children.  So why do we assume God does?  God understands pain on a level that surpasses anything we could imagine. Could it be that when God watches us go through a struggle, it brings back memories of watching his begotten Son suffer?   He gets it, and He's trying to help you hear him.  Let pain be the tool that brings you closer to God. Instead of viewing it as a wedge between you and him, look at it as him trying desperately to speak to you.  Be like the little kid who squeezes their daddy tightly. How will you respond?