The Pathway of Pain

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 4: The Pathway of Pain

Opening Thought: Pain is not something I find everyone fully appreciates as much as they should. Doesn’t mean you enjoy pain, rather you hold a respect to the seriousness of it. Pain can be looked at in many ways, in this chapter Zacharias looks at pain both as a reason why God exists, (which may be counter intuitive to some of you) and shows that knowledge and experience of pain is not terminal. I feel that people who have suffered with long term pain can appreciate this line of thinking. When you have to push through daily pain to make a life, if you have a strong foundation for your emotional, mental and spiritual state, learning to live through pain and despite pain can harness a much deeper strength which could never compare to other life lessons. This doesn’t mean we should seek needless pain, rather don’t look at pain with resentment. The best way to approach pain is to remember that we are finite creatures looking into an infinite God. So, things we experience which may seem like life crippling or ending, as pain often can, this may merely be a steppingstone to a larger good we cannot grasp.   

The devotional begins with: Psalm 22:1-2

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.

Second Thought: Suffering and pain can be a common reason people lose faith or never consider it. If there is a good and all-powerful God why does pain happen? Like Zacharias, I do not feel I have an answer to complete satiate this ancient and ongoing question, however there does seems to be things we can logically conclude about pain, and when we look at pain critically it seems to point to God and a wonderful truth.

In this short chapter Zacharias gave much to think about, but for today I will focus on one point and then more to a point of my own. Zacharias points out that within asking the question, why does pain and suffering happen, we are often implying there is a moral dimension. I’ll quote Zacharias here, “why do we even ask these questions about suffering within the context of morality? Why have we blended the fact of physical pain with the demand for a moral explanation? Who decided that pain is immoral?” The idea here is many people will claim that God cannot exist because there is pain and suffering in the world. In other words, because pain is immoral and it is not abolished by God, then there cannot be a God. There are a few problems with this argument, and sadly many people do not take the time to reflect on this. He is a short summary of a few points: As Zacharias notes, to have morality or a moral law their must be a moral law giver. If we are really, as the materialist believe, just the result of random development of cells, morality is merely subjective and suffering and pain could be just as good if not better in one set of subjective morality verses another. Heck,  even the suffering of others, (including assault and murder), could be seen as a virtues if someone within a morally neutral material world believed it so. Issues arise without an ultimate authority for morality, i.e. God.  We see pain and suffering as immoral because we recognize an intrinsic value in life and creation. That value is tied to the relationship with the ultimate worth of God.

3)   With this noted we can see how the materialist has no basis to claim no God if it is on the basis of morality, because it would either negate the value of the sufferer and therefore suffering is a non-issue, or there argument would rely on morality, which does not hold within a purely material understanding of existence because one can not move beyond subjective truths.

*There are a few more issues but I’ll leave it there for now, if this particular debate interests you, I can offer more thoughts another time or provide links to a variety of apologists who address this more thoroughly.

The debate of suffering and God within theology and philosophy is not something new. This devotional time is merely just a tip of the much large continental sized iceberg beneath the surface.

One point I would add is that we often knowingly encounter pain because what is beyond the pain is deemed worthy  to endure the suffering for. Many people right now are looking to get the covid-19 vaccination, well knowing that it comes in the form of a needle. I personally hate getting needle. My dislike for needles is odd for me too because I am accustomed to many types of physical pain, but needles just give me anxiety. Now if you wish to have the benefits of a vaccine you must confront the pain of the getting the needle (and sometimes getting a few symptoms of the illness too), to allow your body to build the antibodies needed to make you overall stronger. This is just one example. Another would be how athletes often face the pain and aches of training, injury, and in the case of martial arts direct impact and injury, in order to achieve the goals, they long for. One of the more impactful framings of this argument comes from a brief story Zacharias tell of a young girl who has a condition that does not allow her to feel physical pain. This might seem ideal, but without pain to notify the brain of danger, her body is always at risk of serious injury. One little scratch or cracked bone could lead to an unknown infection or bleeding out. Zacharias notes how the girls mother prays for her daughter to feel pain every day.   

Continual Work: Ask yourself how has pain shaped your world view? How do you integrate pain, morality, and God’s righteousness into a cohesive understanding?

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: There are good things to take on pain for, and then there are not-so-good things. A good indicator is what is the long-term outcome of what you’re taking on. For example, I have a food sensitivity to many things, which can cause an increase of pain with my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Thus, even though eating cake give pleasure and I often feel willing to face pain to achieve that pleasure, cake really has no long-term benefit. As yummy as it is.  

Rev. Jacob’s Scripture time: John 16:33

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

There is a fine balance in pain and pleasures. In theological debate we are willing to cast pain and suffering as an accusation against God, but if I were the one looking to find fault with God and/or creation, I might mark the issue of why so many pleasurable things have negative consequences. Fats and sugars, (the things we seem to crave) make us unhealthy, alcohol drugs and thrill seeking leads to un balanced and destructive living, sex has immense consequence like pregnancy, STI and STDs, our luxuries seem to produce entitlement, laziness and anxiety and the list goes on.

We know that there is an ethic and a moral terrain we are navigating, and within that there seems to be suffering and pleasure, tools we can experience and inflict. In a way it almost seems like a very complex game, can you navigate the terrain and utilize the pain and suffering events in your life to retain the course God has called you to. Jesus says we will face tribulation but in Him take peace. To me this reads that you will need to do your best in facing these things, but ultimately trust in God, trust in what Christ has taught us, and trust Christ will wait for you at the end of the game. If you put that into your heart, all things faced will be bearable.  

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Prayer for your day: God, we are in a tribulation of conscience, help us find the path to serve You best. Help us to over come suffering and help heal those who suffer around us. Help us to enjoy the gifts of the Spirit but move from the pleasures that would distract us from Your will. Help us to know that shame does not fall upon those who stumble, but those who stop trying to get back up along the road. Let us be one who stands with up with You, and those who help others stand too. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Artistic Close:

And Man Appeared, Questioning the Earth From Which He Emerged and Which Attracts Him, He Made His Way Toward Somber Brightness (1883) by Odilon Redon. Original from the National Gallery of Art. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.