Pain Redeemed

“Pain redeemed impresses me more than pain removed.”

– Phillip Yancey, What Good Is God?: In Search of a Faith That Matters, 2010

Jesus of the Scars

The other gods were strong, but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

– Edward Shillito (1872-1948)

A Friend Who Cares

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in a hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”

– Henri Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey, 1990

To Live With Your Thorn

“God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away. To live with your ‘thorn’ uncomplainingly — that is, sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help others, even though every day you feel weak — is true sanctification. It is true healing for the spirit. It is a supreme victory of grace.”

– J.I. Packer, God’s Plans for You, 2001

The God Who Suffered

“In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.

But each time, after a while I have had to look away. And in imagination I have turned instead to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness.

That is the God for me! He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.”

– John R.W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, 1986

To Glory in My Cross

“My dear God, I have never thanked You for my thorns.  I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses but not once for my thorns.  I have always looked forward to the place where I will be rewarded for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross as a present glory itself.

Teach me, O God, to glory in my cross.  Teach me the value of my thorns.  Show me how I have climbed to You through the path of pain.  Show me it is through my tears I have seen my rainbows.”

– George Matheson (1842-1906)

These Pains and Troubles

“These pains and troubles here are like the type that printers set.  When we look at them, we see them backwards, and they seem to have no meaning.  But up there, when the Lord God prints out our life to come, we will find they make splendid reading.”

– Martin Luther (1483-1546)

The Fire

“Light is always costly and comes at the expense of that which produces it.  An unlit candle does not shine, for burning must come before the light.  And we can be of little use to others without a cost to ourselves.  Burning suggests suffering, and we try to avoid pain.

We tend to feel we are doing the greatest good in the world when we are strong and fit for active duty and when our hearts and hands are busy with kind acts of service.  Therefore when we are set aside to suffer, when we are sick, when we are consumed with pain, and when all our activities have stopped, we feel we are no longer of any use and are accomplishing nothing.

Yet if we will be patient and submissive, it is almost certain we will be a greater blessing to the world around us during our time of suffering and pain than we were when we thought we were doing our greatest work.  Then we are burning, and shining brightly as a result of the fire.

Many people want the glory without the cross, and the shining light without the burning fire, but crucifixion comes before coronation.”

-L. B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert