What possible purpose could there be in pain?

There’s a good chance I know why you may be hear reading this.  You’re in pain.  Not necessarily a bodily pain, but it could be.  Not necessarily a psychological pain, but it could be.

Whatever it is, when the time comes that we’re thrust forlorn into a furnace of trial, usually when we did not see it coming, we find it so unbearable, yet it feels both inescapable and interminable.

Many times we come before a question that just will not go away, just like it just won’t be answered.  It sticks to us.  It provokes us to brokenness.  It evokes a response, but we have no response to give it.  We feel a shiver of darkness in a blast of heat.  We simply have no answer, yet it is a thing that compels a question.

What on earth could be the purpose in this?  We feel that just HAS TO BE a purpose.  Yet, we cannot secure a glimpse of it.  It is tantalising.  We cannot realise the hope of it, but we cannot let go of the hope.  And that hope holds us to the point of pain, yet it’s a hope that won’t let go just as we can’t let go, thank God!  Amid the hellishness of it, God makes something of the confounding reality, and it’s a faith.

Nestled deeper within the fissures of the struggle, deeper than any of us can see, God buries a seed that will soon, at the proper time, germinate, grow, blossom and flourish.  New life will come.  And that new life forms forth a multitude of blessing.

Always far deeper than any of us can see, the purpose is nestled in the struggle.  New life bears forth not in spite of the struggle but BECAUSE of the struggle.

READING

Imbibe 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 from The Passion Translation:

“All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us. And just as we experience the abundance of Christ’s own sufferings, even more of God’s comfort will cascade upon us through our union with Christ.

“If troubles weigh us down, that just means that we will receive even more comfort to pass on to you for your deliverance! For the comfort pouring into us empowers us to bring comfort to you. And with this comfort upholding you, you can endure victoriously the same suffering that we experience. Now our hope for you is unshakable, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings you will also share in God’s comforting strength.”

PRAYER

God of comfort, Author of light

You give us what we cannot bear so we can understand the majesty of your unfathomable grace as You tend to us and heal us in our travail, healing us not in spite of what we suffer but because of it.

You help us to enter a mystery with You to strip from us worthless pride and to equip us with empathy.  You are making us into Your instruments of anointing; to give to those whatever their need is.

Use our pain, Lord God, for Your sake, and make the purpose so profound that we know WHY You allow pain to exist within us, so You may do Your work in us and through us.

In Jesus’ name

AMEN.

Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash