Major Pain

If I asked you what the most painful thing that's ever happened to you is, what would you say? Maybe it's physical pain - breaking a bone or getting stung by a wasp. Maybe it's mental pain - a parent's harsh words or a "friend's" vicious rumors. Maybe it's emotional pain - death of a parent or sibling or loss of a friend. Regardless of your response, all of us has felt some level of pain.

This week, it seems like I have experienced pain on a number of different levels. Probably the least amount was going to the gym last night and doing BodyPump (choreographed weight-lifting). (; A friend's dad died this week suddenly, and one of my good friends is going through a rough time. My family was in court this week in a custody battle, which was also stressful, though I was out of town. So why do bad things happen? Why should anyone have to experience any kind of pain? Is it just life? Is it karma? Is it because of an uncaring, distant God?

Read this excerpt from my cousin's blog: "Why can’t we have ice cream for breakfast? Why do bad things happen to good people? That’s what we ask God, expecting Him to be at a loss for words. When we suffer loss, is it the devil that takes it, or is it God? How do we understand the hard times? Why can’t it always be easy? We all want to know. Would you believe it? God actually has a good answer for all of this. There is a reason we can’t have ice cream for breakfast."

So why CAN'T we have ice cream for breakfast? Ice cream is good, breakfast is good. We've all heard that too much of a good thing is a bad thing, right? Sometimes, we as humans, think that God owes us a good life. Is it because we think we're good people? God describes our very nature in the book of Romans. He tells us that there is none righteous, no one seeks after Him naturally (Romans 3:10-12). It tells us that we're all born sinful and that our condition makes us hopeless. I encourage you to read Romans 3. It explains how sin is a universal condition, not just something that applies only to Jews or only to Gentiles. There is no difference between us, because we all share that common malady, meaning we also share a common need for a Savior.

This is where it gets interesting, and where we need to have faith. It's fairly simple to see that humankind is damaged - rape, murder, war, famine, poverty, death. It's simple to see that people in the world are wrong-doers, no matter if they're a murderer or told a little white lie. The point is that in Romans 3:23, the wages of sin is death, according to the law. Think about it; if someone murdered your mom, wouldn't you want to do the same thing to them? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The reason why the wages of all sin (lying, adultery, disobedience, unbelief) is death is because our sin alienates us from God, and we essentially murder our Creator in our hearts. Have you heard that hate is a strong word? Did you know that hating someone is compared to killing that person in your heart? Our sin grieves the heart of the God who is so accessible to us. And remember how I said it gets interesting? That's because this plan that God came up with sounds completely deranged in our human, finite minds. Send His son to die for our sins.

The big question is why? Why would God, in His infinite power, drop down to our level? Become human and suffer persecution from His own people? John says it in John 3:16 - God SO loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that none would perish, but all would have eternal life. The God of the Universe, in His infinite power and wisdom saw fit to send His only Son to live as a human, have human experiences, and live under the law that He Himself had created. He lived as a human, with human tendencies, giving up His inherent Godship. He lived an innocent life, and died a sinner's death on a cross - the most humiliating form of torture around in Bible times. WHY? It all comes back to love. Some people might say that "love" is a human notion - that touchy-feely sensation in your tummy when you see a cute girl/guy. Or that love is action, not feeling. God says that He is love (1 John 4:8). God is a God of action, a God of passion. He is a God of wrath and mercy and forgiveness.

How can our finite minds wrap around an infinite God? How can we ever hope to understand why He put us on this earth, why He sent His son to die a criminal's death, why He allows suffering in the world, why He allows other religions to prosper while His people are being persecuted? What makes Christianity right over any other religion if you exclude faith from the equation? Would you try to understand advanced math without reading a textbook? Would you try to find a city in another country without a map? In the same way, you, as a human, cannot understand the depth of God's character without faith. Faith is essential because we will never be able to understand God fully - He asks us to trust Him because He knows that we'll worry otherwise. After all, He had human experiences too.

I would be wrong to present the Gospel incompletely. What makes Jesus different from Mohammed or Joseph Smith? Why is Jesus the only way to Heaven or to God (John 14:6)? In the Bible, there are four different accounts of the resurrection of Christ. It was prophesied in the Old Testament, and Jesus foretold it before His death. He rose after three days. This is the pinnacle of Christianity. If Jesus hadn't risen from the dead, we would still be without hope. Because the penalty of sin had to be paid by death, it could have been paid by any one of us, but not for all mankind. It had to be paid by the Son of God, because He was the only one with the power to redeem every man on earth. He had to rise again, because staying dead would mean that He was just like us. It's a taxi-cab argument. If He was human, His death would've been the same as yours or mine. Because He was God, His death and resurrection had the power to redeem us.

The point of this blog was to present the Gospel. Any pain that you experience on earth will one day pass away. Whether it's a rough breakup, the death of a loved one, a broken bone or a bad hair day. Will you be spending the rest of your life living for the One that loved you enough to redeem you back to a love relationship with Him or will you be living in a perpetual bad day? Don't live the rest of your life in pain. Recognize that there is an accessible God who created YOU for a purpose. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or find me on Facebook.