Two Questions . . .

What is the greatest pain you have ever experienced? The physical pain I have gone through might seem trivial to others, still it has been my pain. My ‘8’ may only be a ‘5’ to you but it’s mine and I didn’t like it.

Throughout the course of my life I’ve discovered that emotional pain is more agonizing than physical pain. Some people carry emotional pain for years—even a lifetime. The emotional stress and pain my family and I have experience over the last several days is at or near the top of our ‘pain’ list. Personally it has felt like a death—only no one died. As hard as it may be on us as extended family, I can only imagine what it is like for Deb and Travis at the center of it all.

Now here’s the harder question. What good has come out of your pain? Sometimes we may be tempted to think nothing good could ever come from our pain, but God has promised to work all things together for good—even our pain. Already I can see the good coming from the crisis our family has endured, and I’m sure there is still more to come. Perhaps the greater the pain the greater the good God will bring out of it.

Someone has said, “God never wastes a hurt.” I believe that! Regardless of the pain—big or small—God wants to use it to accomplish His good purpose in my life.

I wonder—if we were to roll ALL of our pain and grief together would it even begin to compare to the pain Jesus experienced on the cross? More than physical pain, Jesus suffered the emotional pain of being abandoned by His friends, rejected by those He came to save and separated from God. Yet it was our sin that put Him on the cross. Jesus was innocent and free from guilt but He suffered and died anyway.

Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Isaiah 53:11 (MsgB)

Out of the greatest pain God has brought the greatest good—our salvation. Jesus endured the pain of the cross with joy because He saw the good that was to come. Maybe we should stop focusing on the pain and look for the good instead.