The Blessings of Pain

We live in a rather gratuitous world. No matter what takes place in our lives we seem to have some way to alleviate the pain and discomfort those things might bring to us. But does that really help us in being better people? I think not.

Though no one, myself included, enjoys pain and difficulties in life, I really do believe it is through pain and suffering that most of humanity really grasp the depths of what it is to truly be human in the highest form. If you read the biographies of world changers you will find they are generally people who have suffered much and, in that suffering, come to a deeper, more profound understanding of life, mercy, hope, happiness and grace. It is through the absence of things that we discover the real primacy of life - those things which really matter.

I am convinced that it is through suffering that we truly get to know the heart of God for it is in those moments of suffering that we are most likely to reach out to Him, depend on Him and seek Him with utter abandon.

I am also convinced that through the crucible of these difficulties that God refines and hones our lives to be more like Him. It is like the lump of coal buried deep in the bowels of the earth. It is ugly, not terribly useful and lacking the beauty and luster to allow it adorn the hand or neck of someone. However, if that same piece of coal is put under extreme pressure, under the "trials of life" if you will, that it becomes a beautiful diamond. In that process I am sure that the coal thinks that it is going to die. Thousands upon thousands of pounds of pressure seem almost unbearable, but it is not. God knows what He is doing and at just the right moment the coal, once black and non-reflective, is transformed into something that it never imagined it could be -- a diamond -- and with the ability to reflect and refract light!

I can't help but think that this is how God has intended our lives as well. We will experience difficulties if we live in this sinful world, there is no doubt about it. However, if we are faithful, if we allow the Father to transform our lives through the difficulties and hardships, we will emerge something more precious than we could have imagined and something that can reflect all the radiance of the One who created us.

... So don't fight the pain and hardships of this world as they are indeed par for the course. Instead, embrace them as a refining process that allows you to reflect the One who has created you and promises to never leave you or forsake you. Don't waste the pain. He certainly didn't and because He didn't we now have life and have it more abundantly.