Pain: Someone You Can’t Avoid

“Everyone knows me. No one likes me. My name is ‘Pain,’ and that’s enough to make you want to turn me off. But don’t do that. Listen to me and you’ll learn that I’m not all bad. After all, if it wasn’t for me, you would touch that hot stove and not have enough sense to yell ‘ouch’ and let go.

“I’ve been around a long time. In fact, I’ve given my pain treatments to you humans since Adam and Eve first embraced. That’s where I came in and why I’m on the way out—at least as far as those who love God are concerned. The only way I got started was when the devil—oh he was a real charmer—seduced Eve into a debate. You humans were told to resist Satan, not debate him. She lost the debate, they lost their innocence, and I, Pain, came on the scene. First was their head pain of a guilty conscience and God’s eviction notice. No more garden. I struck again when she had her first baby. And I’ve been attacking you humans ever since. Pain—and lots of it.

“It’s what you do with me that determines my effect on you. Take your ancestor, David. He was headed in Satan’s direction—wandering astray from God like a lost sheep. Then God used me—Pain—to affect him, and David went running back to His Creator, closer than ever.

“Then there was old Judas. When you think about it, he wasn’t much worse than Peter—at least what he did. They both sold out the Savior. That’s when I struck again. Pain. The worst kind. In the head and in the heart with fear, foreboding and failure. Judas chose suicide. That meant no chance at a better alternative. Peter? He wept bitterly, found forgiveness and lived to experience God’s presence and plan for his life.

“You can’t avoid pain, my friend. Neither could God the Father and Jesus Christ. That’s because they had you in mind—and your sins that made you blind. God’s love was more than talk—that’s why He allowed sinful men to kill His beloved Son. Talk about heart pain! And Jesus accepted the curses, spit, thorns and nails to save you from hell!

“That’s why you have someone very important who cares about the pain you feel—yes, somebody does care. The God who made you, and the Savior who died for you. Christ’s resurrection shattered my power over Him. No more pain. Now it’s your turn. You can’t avoid me. My name is Pain—and that’s what I inflict. All kinds of pain. Pain of not feeling loved. Pain from being bullied or ignored by your peers. Pain caused by an unfaithful mate—parents who don’t care—a child who won’t listen—an empty chair where death has silenced a voice you cry to hear again. Pain from cancer and a hundred other diseases that stretch your endurance to the breaking point.

“That’s how I work. My name is Pain. My cousins, Grief, Worry, and Depression now wait to take their best shot at you. The devil knows how to use us. He even keeps the ugliest of us all—Suicide—well concealed in order to strike down those whom his lies convince face a hopeless future. But then there is the awesome God who holds the future in His hand. As soon as someone I strike with pain cries out ‘Help, Lord!’, He’s always there. With his mercy, grace, strength, touch and, at times, a miracle of healing. But it’s always the presence of Jesus that makes the human spirit able to tolerate anything I, Pain, throw at them.

“Sometimes it takes time. You may even have to go through three other valleys where my cousins Grief, Worry and Depression are waiting. But even I, Pain, know God intends to win you, now or later. Because He loves you. Because Jesus cares. And His Cross will be like a guardrail to keep you from falling off the cliff into the pit where lurks the monster himself, Suicide!”

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras