Processing Pain as a Precious Pearl

“For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.” Philippians 1:29 (KJV)

Question: have you purchased your ticket to take a ride on the Pain Train? The majority of us would most likely say, “Not today nor tomorrow! I don't want to sign up for sorrow! And by the way it's insane to select pain. Put me on the Love Train!” My intro may look cheesy but the topic this week is far from easy! Okay, I will spare you the rhyme and respect your time.

When it comes to the pain conversation, without hesitation (Sorry, couldn't help myself!) most of us will avoid pain because we prefer pleasure. “Our natural inclination is to avoid — or try to eliminate anything immediately aversive even though it may be beneficial for us in the long term,” write authors Aparna A. Labroo from the University of Chicago and Jesper Nielsen from the University of Arizona. Embracing pleasure and avoiding pain is natural but God calls us to be in sync with the supernatural and not the natural.
 
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25 (KJV)

So often we want to pursue what appears to be good based on the fleshly sensation of wanting to approach it or bad based on the sensation of desiring to avoid it. Again, as believers our bodies should not be our bible. We should have a habit,not of hooking up to our humanity, but hooking up to heaven. While I am not dismissing the reality that we were formed with earth's clay, I am emphasizing the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. Just as God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul, God breathed into us His Holy Spirit. By the power of His Spirit He graciously granted us the capacity to be consistent in conducting ourselves in the supernatural as opposed to consistently caressing the carnal.

Let's face it - we are fixated with comfort, pleasure, recreation and entertainment. All these things are not wrong in and of themselves but it is not only problematic, misleading and immature to process and pursue a world without pain or suffering. According to the Scripture, even the earth suffers and groans for relief because of the curse of sin.
 
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Romans 8:22 (KJV)

Consider the connection between suffering and pain. The word suffering is sometimes used in the narrow sense of physical pain, but more often it refers to mental or emotional pain, or more often yet to pain in a broader sense such as any unpleasant feeling, emotion or sensation. The word pain usually refers to physical pain, but it is also a common synonym of suffering. The words pain and suffering are often used both together in different ways. For instance, they may be used as interchangeable synonyms. They may also be used in “contradistinction” to one another, as in "pain is physical, suffering is mental", or "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional". Or they may be used to define each other, as in "pain is physical suffering", or "suffering is severe physical or mental pain."

The bottom line is that pain and suffering are interrelated so when you converse about one you are also talking about the other. As followers of Jesus Christ, how are we to process pain or suffering? A review of the Scriptures indicates that in God’s economy suffering is a good thing and pain is gain.

Join me again next week when we will further consider how God works pain and suffering together for good in the life of the believer.
 
For the Glory of God,
 
PBKSR