Storm

     Today started as a gorgeous but windy day, but one that had everyone watching the skies. The 75 degrees and sunshine are a pleasant reminder that spring is just around the corner, and yet the weather forecasters are telling of conditions ripe for the formation of tornadoes. It is hard to imagine that the cheerful day could suddenly yield to a catastrophic storm, but there it is.

     The rest of life is no different. Everything can be going perfectly well--good job, everyone healthy, relationships looking fine--when suddenly disaster strikes. A diagnosis of cancer is made. An automobile accident takes the life or health of a loved one. A sudden, unexplained death. The loss of a job. And the list goes on and on...

     There is absolutely nothing that can spare us from pain in this world. As The Dread Pirate Roberts (aka Westly) said to Buttercup in The Princess Bride, "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." It is a guarantee that if you draw breath, you will experience some sort of physical or emotional pain at some point until the day that breath stops. Knowing that there is no way around pain, no barrier we can erect that will impede it, what then? What is the purpose of my depressing proclamation?
    
     My purpose is twofold: For starters, the purpose of knowledge that pain will come is merely a matter of perspective, and the importance lies in what we do with that knowledge. We can ignore it, skipping happily through our days like someone maddened by an overdose of fairy dust and be shocked, devastated, and completely overwhelmed when it comes. Or we can dwell on it, letting the certainty of coming calamity bog us down and taint everything we do, say, and think until we are maddened in quite another way.

     Naturally, there are several levels in between these extremes, but there is one action that is ours to take which is neither fanciful and flighty nor dark and despondent. We can embrace suffering when it comes, neither disregarding it nor dreading it, but simply accepting it as a tool allowed by a loving Father that serves to shape us, refine us, or discipline us. We can know it is unavoidable, but we do not have to let that knowledge drag us down. We can trust in the Lord to know when it is right to suffer and then leave that up to Him, enjoying the days that we have without it and even rejoicing in the days we endure in distress, taking comfort in the knowledge that God will bring it all about for the good of His Kingdom and His purpose. This is what James means when he wrote, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-4) It is not a twisted masochism that is preached, but  instead an unwavering trust in the goodness and compassion of a heavenly Father.
     The second purpose for my propounding of the certainty of pain is to have us think about what happens after our final breath has been exhaled.  When we finally take the Big Sleep, will we sleep in vain? Or do we hope for something more? Is there, in fact, life after death or is it all just a big accident; a meaningless and random series of events that brought us yowling from the womb and sends us meandering through pointless episodes of bliss and heartache until we bow our heads to the Reaper's blade?

     For those of us who choose some level of ignoring or obsessing over the inevitability of sorrow, this may feel like the case. However, the option remains to consider the good news of Christ--that He came to earth to live--and to suffer--as a Man, that He gave His life willingly as the ultimate atoning sacrifice to appease the wrath of God for sin once and for all, and that He rose again and so defeated death. Sin has always been serious, and some of the greatest sins are seriously easy to ignore. The Jewish people in old times were well acquainted with the price of sin as they made blood sacrifices of their livelihood to temporarily pay the penalty. Christ paid it in full, and that gift is yours to take if you wish it. He does not promise a life without pain and suffering. He promises to be there in the midst of it, helping us to see the point of it all, helping us to endure it. He promises that there is a hope for the future--even after the last beat of our hearts.

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:1-21

Scripture quotations are from the ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.