Pain

John 16:21, "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come, but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world."

Pain (not to be confused with torment)... what a topic..

In passing I asked, What is pain? And in response to myself I wrote, "pain seems a whole lot worse when you are between glories than it does retrospectively standing in the glory. And in fact, the pain of your experience is not painful to me at all. So does that mean the experience is not the source of the pain? Yep... that is what it means."

I now debate myself in light of the scripture. Is pain something apart from the experience? Certainly pain only belongs to the beholder. Certainly a single experience can cause pain to multiple parties. So I am wrong in saying the experience is not the source of the pain. The experience is the source of the pain. But the pain becomes beautiful in light of the results of the experience, and if that experience is orchestrated by God.

Jesus was not talking about physical birth the this scripture. He was talking about spiritual birth, about the birth of Him in us, of God's kingdom in us. He was talking about the glory that follows the transformation being able to erase the memories of the pain.

What other instances of pain produce glorious results? Physically a massage can be painful on the knots in the muscles, but oh so relieving when it's done. A workout can bring pain the following days when done effectively. How about growing pains... do you remember the leg pain as a child? To win athletes have to often ignore the pain. So pain can be ignored as well.

I think about my writings, how many were born out of pain? Christ salvation for the world... the ultimate in pain yielding something great. So pain, when suffered at the birth of something new and godly in us is a good thing.

Pain in the context of transformation is a good thing. It is not good in the sense that it can easily be ignored, or is enjoyable. But it is a necessary reminder that we are alive. It is a necessary call to action, that action being allow God to do His work or to hide further in the darkness. Pain is the call to be hot or cold. Sometimes the prescription of pain is to forgive someone. Sometimes the prescription is to change course. Other times there is no prescription for the pain, there is no relief. In those cases, there most often is a way to embrace the pain. There is a way to focus on the joy of the transformation and the other side.

Today's music selection is not a reflection of the bands standing with God. But it says so much about pain. About how pain is better than being numb. Give me pain, rather than nothing at all. Happiness is not a cure for pain. (not to be confused with joy) But unlike the song... this pain I am speaking of is not "without love" but because of God's love. Of their experiences in this area, the band writes this on their website, "We’ve all had to confront death on a few different levels, and we’ve had family go through some health-related things, so, for us, Life Starts Now reflects that feeling of redefining what life is and what it means to be alive after you hit rock bottom.”

The pain is a opportunity for us all to redefine life and living with God's definition.