Why is that? Why is life pain? But for the sake of time, and the fact that I am not a theologian or philosopher, I’d like to narrow down the focus of this devotional, quite a lot. Why do Christians face so much suffering? I would like to distinguish this from the “why do bad things happen to good people” question – there is an entire book about that in the Bible, which is all that needs to be said on that. Why is there suffering that isn’t related to persecution?
This is the question that I’ve been thinking about for a few months now. I’ve found that sometimes I’m experiencing pain and suffering that doesn’t seem to have a purpose. I know that God is putting me through a refining fire, but why does it hurt so much more at some times rather than others? Perhaps I’m the only one who has dealt with this (I’ll admit, I’m sometimes stubborn when I fail to understand God. I don’t like that and I keep searching, even when I should be happy with a “just because” answer).
God loves us. That’s an undeniable fact. But God is also holy. This means, in the words of CS Lewis “His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labour to make us lovable. We cannot even wish, in our better moments, that He could reconcile Himself to our present impurities…What we would here and now call our ‘happiness is not the end God chiefly has in view: but when we are such as He can love without impediment, we shall in fact be happy” – CS. Lewis, “The Problem of Pain”
We need to be changed and altered. We cannot remain as we are now. We can agree upon this. And in my experiences of late, I’ve begun to wonder if much of our suffering comes from our resistance to that change. Yes, we know that we need to be different, and part of us wants to change, but in certain areas of our life, we would prefer that God leave us alone. We would like to keep certain parts to ourselves, and have all the rest changed and perfected. But that’s not the way it works. As George MacDonald wrote, “No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it – no plan to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather.”
The more we hold on to our own lives, the more it will be painful when God says to us “I love you, and I need you to give this up.” This is why Corrie Ten Boom said, “I’ve learned to hold everything loosely because it hurts when God pried my fingers from it”.
My encouragement to you is to hold everything loosely. As you feel God telling you to let go of something, let go. It’s frightening, painful yet exhilarating at the same time. There are only better things waiting for you. I’d like to close with a few more words from Lewis, and then from the Apostle Paul.
“Human will becomes truly creative and truly our own when it is wholly God’s, and this is one of the many sense in which he that loses his soul shall find it.” – CS Lewis
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
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