Pain

C.S. Lewis wrote that pain was “God’s megaphone to the world.” When we learn lessons while experiencing pain it seems that the lessons linger longer in our often dull minds.
Currently, and this is seriously random I know, I have a mouth ulcer on the very end of my tongue that is exceedingly painful. Often one can forget that one has a tongue in their mouth unless they are using it intentionally (dubiously or otherwise). This is not the case for me at this time; I am excruciatingly aware of my tongue—its outline, how much I use it when I talk, what letter sounds are made by the very tip of the tongue. This pain in my tongue is enlightening me even though I am finding no enjoyment in it whatsoever.

So with the pain of life, God certainly doesn’t allow us to experience it because He receives some cheap thrill as we battle through it. There is a spotlight (or highlighter) effect with pain. (Please remember that so much pain is due to sinfulness: our own, our loved ones’, or the sinful structure of secular reality) God can bring such an edge to what He is shaping in us or seeking to mould in us if these things are encountered ‘painfully.’
I have to say that several of the lessons I learnt last year (see earlier blog) were learnt within a larger framework of pain. There were probably other things that were of great importance to me last year but they do not linger in my mind with the same intensity because they did not come with, or because of, pain.

I pray that you would have the maturity and depth of person to become ‘bigger’ this year whenever you are in pain. Seek the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ of pain. Growth is so important if we are to be more beneficial to society and to change lives—Pain can either grow the soul or shrink the soul it is very much up to us!