If Only I Had A Box

“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” 
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Pain is hard to overcome. That's its problem. Try as one might to love others, sometimes it is a painful love. The greatest commandment in Scripture is to love our neighbors as ourselves. How true that is, and how difficult! Even more so sometimes than loving an enemy. When friends desert you, you're left out, you can't achieve success in any area of life, the last thing you want to think about is loving someone else. Injuries scream self, not selflessness. One can become consumed with asking questions. "What did I do?" "Why is this happening to me?" One can fall into despair, as C.S. Lewis says earlier in his book on pain, "If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair." Instead people do not recognize that something bigger is at work. Like Aslan in Narnia, God is on the move. He's not just on the move is certainly is yelling for attention. And when we can realize this, the problem and the pain suddenly are minimized. 

My dad told me a story tonight which not only cured the pain, but left me with a plethera of morals. It is the story of a town, where all the children played with balls. Everyone was content and happy. Then, one day a girl came out carrying a box. Many children stopped playing and, as children are want to do, went over to examine the box. Soon, many had obtained boxes, balls were a thing of the past. A couple children kept their balls and felt hurt and left out. But, the fad of the boxes were short-lived, and it was on to the next new thing. This story makes reality so much easier to deal with. Things pass away. You do not have to follow every fad or become friends with popular kids, but you do need to maintain joy and contentment and recognize the sovereignty of God. 

I'm an introvert. I keep silent in large groups and I keep especially silent when I am in deep pain. This silence often leads to a spirit of bitterness or anger at what is happening to me and what I believe I deserve to have happen. These thoughts are entirely selfish. I cannot put trust in myself. I am a sinner. The people around me will also let me down. But what comfort there is knowing that there is a God who is sovereign and loves me without changing. No fads, no new friends, or faltering human steps can shake His love. 

Blessed be the name of the Lord!