[332 words]
We are dealing with pain and suffering. Our varying degrees of “hurt” are different because we all are on different journeys to the same place. Our labor and toil are met each day with emotional, social, financial, and physical pain. Our wounds can make us incapable of moving from one hour to another. Have we received bad news from the doctor? Do we have too much month left when it’s time to pay bills? Does that chronic condition continue to pound us? Are we missing someone we love? Has someone we love turned their back on God? Let us consider how we can deal with pain and suffering.
Regardless of demographic, we are burdened in this tabernacle. Second Corinthians 5:4 says, “For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed by life.” We must strive to be “home” with our Savior. Verse 6 tells us “while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” Let us not cling to the world and but desire to be at home with the Lord.
We can learn from pain. James 1:2-4 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” We know it takes “testing” of faith to produce endurance. May we go out each day and challenge our challenges to make our commitment stronger to Christ.
What is the purpose in “battling” each day? James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” We have a crown that awaits not for the perfect, but for the faithful. When we want to quit, remember why we started.
Allen Jones
South Green Street church of Christ
Glasgow, KY