Wonderings About Pain

They say (whoever “they” are) that pain is the great equalizer.  All people go through pain of some kind from time to time in their lives. None of us are immune.

The saying has more to do with the “how” we see ourselves inside of pain rather than just saying that we all suffer. What I mean is, we all suffer yes, but pain tends to bring together people who suffer and it takes away the judgmental spirit that we posses when things are going fine.

For example, we may treat a person of a different race in a derogatory way until we suffer pain and someone of that race helps us. Or if we see someone suffer from another race, we just feel pain with them and color of their skin disappears.

Another example is that of religious differences. We tend to think of people in a different group from us as just a little (if not a lot) strange. Yet, let a tornado come and blow another’s building down and watch us all come to the rescue. We help without even thinking about it.

I wonder though is it always true that pain equalizes things? If you look at my sufferings and think, “Man, I’d trade my problems for yours in a heartbeat.” If I look at you as though I had “worse” problems than you, does that make any sense?

Job said, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” James tells us to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” Paul said in Romans that the hard times to produce patience, character, and hope.

Tonight I spoke to my friend who has a son with a brain tumor. He told me about so many kids who had cancer problems worse than theirs where they have been getting their treatments. To even speak the word cancer in the same breath as your child’s name has to be one of the most devastating things in the world.  Yet here is a man who sees that there are others in worse pain than him and he counts his blessings.

I have to end these wonderings by saying that we are all equal when it comes to PAIN. We just have different circumstances that determine that which we feel. A man with cancer hurts, but so does the man who has been robbed.  Both hurt in their own situations, but most of us would choose robbery over getting cancer.

I believe that in a broken world pain is going to come and no one will escape it. The real question is, “What do we do with it?”

The answer is always faith in God. He can and will take us through. He has promised and will rescue. The problem with us is timing. We want it now, even if God wants it later.

Today has been rough for me in my thought processes. I wonder why I’m where I am. I wonder if I’ll ever get back to doing that which he has called me to. I wonder if I’ll ever not struggle again. I wonder.

I don’t wonder about His listening to me. I know by faith that He does.  Without that hope, I’d be a crazy man right now.