The reminder of pain

Pain, we all live with it. Whether it’s emotional, physical, or spiritual, pain is probably the most common part of the human experience. Ever since The Fall pain has served as the constant reminder that something in our world is out of sorts, that things are not as they should be.

We can’t enjoy our playing our favorite sports because of arthritis; we hold back from giving ourselves completely to the ones we love because of some emotional wound, we distrust God because of some spiritual betrayal in the past. Pain is the silent messenger whispering to our soul that there is something about us that is corrupt and foul. We believe that we’re somehow of lesser value because of it. If it’s physical pain we’re ashamed that we can’t contribute more to society. Emotional pain leaves us feeling dirty and that we somehow deserved whatever it was that happened to us. Spiritual pain convinces us that God must not love us and that our darkest fears of being to sinful to be saved are true.

Pain points to the ugly reality of sin and death, while at the same time pointing us toward the glorious hope of Heaven and the restoration of our bodies to their original perfect, sinless form. That’s why we must learn to embrace it, not in a masochistic kind of way, but in a redeemed God glorifying way. We need to learn to use it to remind us that God has promised us perfect, sinless, bodies, hearts, and minds, and that pain now is a small price to pay for an eternity without it.