Pain vs. Pleasure

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amen. This is supposed to mean: "Neither is there anyone who loves, pursues or desires pain itself because it is pain.” I see this all the time because I use templates to begin a new book or just a nicer format for a newsletter. I get annoyed by it because it’s not in English so I try and find ways of making it go away. Today I decided I wanted to know what it meant. 

The reason I’m mentioning that is because a devo I read this morning in Desert Streams was about suffering for Christ. I’ve been getting a lot of them recently, ever since the Covid-19 pandemic started. I’ve been going thru a lot of issues like feeling imprisoned, panicky, lonely (despite being married), old, controlled, scared of dying, stressed out, and emotionally challenged. 

I’ve always hated the bible verse James 1:2, which tells us to “count it all joy in various trials.” Huh? But the rest says that it produces fruits of the Spirit if we go through those trials. That’s true! There’s no doubt about it. Pain will kill you  or strengthen you. In this writing, I’m talking about average trials. The ones you bring on yourself from your own desires. I consider this pandemic beyond my control and therefore, put that in a different category. But is it really? We find it difficult to imagine that a good God would allow some of the things in this world that do go on. But, here again, I’m not God and don’t understand all that goes along with many of the lives that are hurting in unimaginable ways.

But, the outcome can be entirely up to you. 1Corinthians 10:13 says: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 

Some of the trials I’ve gone thru during this time have diffused with help from the Word, prayer, listening and singing worship music, counseling and choosing to “dwell on things that are good, lovely, noble, right, pure” (Phil. 4:8). By doing these things, the panic attacks have stopped, the depression has subsided, my heart has been filled with compassion for others and I’m feeling joy, even happiness again. 

Don’t get me wrong, the feelings of some of it coming back is there, but I choose to go the other way. I also believe these are things that God is allowing for my strengthening, refining and growth. I’m still here in this body. I’m 71. Maybe He’s using it to prepare me for death. I never thought I was afraid of that, but now I’m finding out I am. I never thought I needed people. I’m basically a loner and always was, but now I’m finding that I need people and am happier when I’m in other people’s presence.

I have to admit that I didn’t even go to places spiritually that I’m going to now. Until I hit my 60’s and retired, I never made time for deep spirituality. I had times of devotion and prayer and all the other stuff, but not like now. Because of that, I pray for my daughter to find this in her 30’s and not wait till she’s in her 60’s. I pray that for everyone. But with the way the world is, it’s no wonder people wait till they’re on the threshold of the last plain of this life. There’s no time otherwise. The pull of things, jobs, family, fun, romance and all the stuff that we want out of life while we’re here, is so strong.

But let’s get back to the pain vs. pleasure. Wisdom that comes with the learning through pain is quite incredible. I’m at the point of being able to read those scripture and not only understand them, but when something happens, I think differently about it. I try to see what God has in store for me. What does He want me to ‘see’ now? What or who can I pray for by seeing or experiencing this? I find myself praying more for people I don’t even know when something happens instead of getting angry ‘cause of something they did. When I see an accident, I pray for the people in it. When I see someone that looks sad or seems down, I pray for them.

I wish I would’ve been like this a long time ago.

There’s a time and place for everything, but sometimes our times come late because we haven’t been listening to God. We’ve become deaf to that “still small voice”. I hear it more now than I ever did before.