The Problem of Pain

My own experience goes something like this. I am traveling along in my merry way of life…content in my fallen and godless condition, absorbed in my daily duties and empty pursuits. When all of the sudden, a jolt of abdominal pain hits me (threatening serious disease) or I read a headline in the news (threatening world destruction) and instantly, my whole stack of cards comes tumbling down. At first I am overwhelmed, and then I become stressed. All of my happiness now feels like broken toys. Why me Lord? What now…questions race through my mind. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God’s grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a man consciously dependent on God and drawing my strength from the right source. BUT the moment the threat is gone, my whole nature leaps back to my toys. Thus, the terrible necessity of pain is way too clear. God had me but for forty-eight hours and only then through my fear of losing everything. ( a C.S. Lewis paraphrase)

Matthew 16:25 "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."

(Photo by Ross Brown)