Pain

THIS WEEK I had a memorably horrible experience for which I am truly grateful.

On Friday I got very sick. I had severe pain in my abdomen and I sweated and felt chilly. I ended up throwing up and having to leave school early. I took a nice nap and felt better.

Now, before I share the important thing I learned from being sick, I'll let you know that I'm perfectly fine now. No need to worry or to ask what was wrong. I'm just telling you so you can understand what my pain made me understand.

I don't have severe pain very often. Generally I go day to day feeling only the tolerable and forgettable amounts of pain that we all feel every day. But when I was sick, I felt like I couldn't imagine being in more pain. I was cold and sick and nauseous and my belly hurt all at the same time. But what this pain made me realize is that it's absolutely nothing compared to the pain people are going to feel in hell. Nor does it compare to the pain Jesus felt on the cross to keep us out of there.

On my long walk to the Student Services Office at school, when I was trying my best just to keep from vomiting, I remembered something I heard once at Youth Group. I don't remember the quote exactly, or who said it. Someone said that if he believed that there were people going to hell, and that he could do something to prevent it, he would be willing to walk across the length of England on land covered with broken glass for the chance to stop just one person from going to hell. On that walk I realized that I have a long way to go before I'm the kind of person who goes such great lengths to see people saved. I could hardly deal with my own personal suffering, which only lasted a few hours. It made me realize that I need to be willing to face any level of discomfort or pain to make a difference in somebody's eternity.

When I was waiting on the bench in Student Services, gasping and panting and praying, I kept remembering Jesus. I remembered His great pain that He suffered through to save us from hell - and I couldn't think about it for long. Not then. You may think that reflecting on somebody else's greater pain might reduce your own, but at that moment it just made me sadder because He suffered so greatly. But now that I can see past the fog of my own discomfort I think about how much He went through to keep us from going to hell.

Isaiah 53:5-6, "[5] But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." This was written about Jesus hundreds of years before His birth.

Everything within Jesus was in extreme pain. He was bruised. He was scratched and covered in the red stripes left by whips. He had nails through the main nerves in His wrists and feet. He had a crown of thorns on His head. He was lifted up where everyone could see Him crying. He couldn't breathe easily, and He was losing blood. He had been abandoned by His dear, devoted disciples whom He loved so much. He had been betrayed and falsely accused. His heartbeat became irregular and eventually stopped. His body, His soul, His heart, His mind were all in ultimate agony. He didn't have to do it - He's God. But He did, so that we wouldn't have to. He did, so that He could take us home where nothing could ever separate us from Him, or Him from us. That's the greatest pain ever, and He faced it for the sake of the greatest love ever, which, we now see, utterly conquers death: His and our own.

Let me explain why I am grateful that I had to be so sick on Friday. Try to imagine the greatest pain you've ever been in. Maybe you broke a bone, or had a bad fall, or faced some struggle, or lost somebody. I think it's good for a person to be in physical or emotional pain sometimes, because it reminds us about the reality of pain. We can't be comfortable all the time. From my usual perspective, the days when I'm not sick and everything is okay, it's hard to imagine that anybody could be in particularly severe pain. This is probably because I don't want to imagine it. Having some pain of my own opened my eyes to the urgency of the problem: People won't be okay without Jesus. People who die without Him are going to suffer pain much greater than any pain that any of us has ever felt. We need to face a little pain (or sometime alot) to start advancing God's kingdom. Being bold to share love with strangers is alot easier to face than the consequences if we don't. We need to remember that people are going to die and face alot more pain than we could ever face on earth - forever - if they don't have Jesus to face it for them.

I'm also reminded me of just how great Jesus' suffering was. The distance of time doesn't make His sacrifice any less severe. It's relevant right now. It's changing lives right now. It is a bold, powerful demonstration of God's love. He reached across every barrier to bring us back into His arms. The least we can do is to give Him the most we can give. He deserves no less than our best. So I'm praying that I and we all will be so full of love for Jesus, and for those whom He loves, that we could not do otherwise than to share His love with other people.

Mark 12:29-31, "[29] Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. [30] And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. [31] And the second, like it, is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.""

Matthew 28:19-20, "[19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Let's all show His love brightly, this week and every week. It's why we live.