The Pain of Life

I haven't posted in a while. My wife would tell you that I am not much of a talker - it takes quite a bit out of me to talk and carry on a conversation. I am more of a thinker. I would like to share with you what I have been thinking about lately. This post is not for the faint of heart, it is not for the casual reader.

So far as I see and understand this life Humans are in constant pain seeking distraction, alleviation, or release. Too many times people distract themselves from pain with different pain that seems pleasurable at the moment because it is only different from that what they are use to. We are constantly clamoring for more things to alleviate or mitigate our angst’s. Drugs, illegal or illicit, only dull the pain for a moment in time only to allow a newness and brightness of pain never before felt to be experienced on the other side of that door. And so it goes, experience after experience, thinking all the while that the next experience will bring the release of ourselves from this pain but we all know that tried and true lesson that the sheep learned as a young lamb –the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, yes! But there is always another fence and another greener pastures which to chase after! Human’s fall for the same lie time after time that the next biggest and newest experience will fulfill oneself. Alas we are too busy looking for a new distraction that we fail to sit and think and see the obvious answer that there is no ultimate pleasure in pleasure seeking. And when a person reaches that realization, the realization that where once they thought this new experience would fulfill them and lead them to ultimate ecstasy and then it fails to fill in all that they expected, BOOM! a greater pain even yet! We clamor and claw, we scream and cry, we are hopelessly falling – history has proven no man, no woman, no philosopher, no psychiatrist, no one has the answer, no one can give any person true release from this dismal destiny – save One Man, The Man Jesus Christ – God incarnate. It is because of man’s sin that this Man was born – to live, to die, to RISE again. Only this Man has no message that He puts out there – HE IS the message. His life lived in perfection, holy and blameless. He Himself put aside the glory of heaven to save a wretch as myself. I hear people say they want to know the truth, but are hypocritical in saying so because they do not give Christ a true honest hearing! Go on and live for yourself, seek after the passing pleasures of sin that for only a moment deaden the pain of life and yet at the next moment increase your pain one hundred fold. Sex outside of the security and sanctity of marriage only brings pain because there is no assurance and thus always doubt. The over use of alcohol does take the pain away for a moment, but when that moment is over there is an overwhelming sense of lost-ness and futility wondering if this is all there is! There is security and peace of mind and soul only found in the message of Christ. Intellectually it does not make sense, but it is not the smart that please God it is he who LIVES by faith! It is in the living by faith that we are called children of Abraham – for he believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. From the beginning of time man has said “I will do things my way!” and thus has rejected communion with God in Christ. A man who dies with this in his mouth will get it his way and never be in the presence of God again. Do not be fooled either, for a life filled with good works will not guarantee pleasure in the sight of God – if it did why was Mother Theresa filled with doubt on her death bed? – It is revealed then that she was also in pain – secretly – trying to fill up her life with distractions thinking that helping one more infirm human body would give her the assurance she needed, but what she lacked and the reason she was filled with doubt was her lack of a relationship with Christ! Only faith in Christ can fill our soul with assurance, because it is only those who live by faith who will be reckoned unto God as righteous – not righteous in themselves, but because of Christ who has bestowed His righteousness on those who believe. What kind of a loving God would make a world so full of pain? – you ask. I answer: How can we know love if we don’t know hate? How can we know joy if we don’t know sadness? How can love be forced and still be pure? Thus we were created in the image of God – freewill is part of the package. He desired to love a creation so much, and to BE loved in response, that the ultimate demonstration of love was planed out and fulfilled on the cross of Gethsemane from before the foundations of the world were formed. Here is the crux of the matter – we want things “our way”, God asks us to give our way to Him and thus love Him as best we can in accepting His free gift. So go to all the other distractions of the world, all the other religions, philosophies, thoughts and ideas – but know that there is only one field that is truly greener, only one field that will fulfill all your emptiness and sooth the pain from its root. Do not say you want to know the truth and then reject The Truth! Do not say you are open to all things and then shun the only Person who is the answer! Do not continue your life in the endless cycle of pain and momentary pleasure. Stop deluding yourself and stop being deluded that having things your way is the best way. Respond to a God who loves you more than you will ever know who demonstrated it by sacrifice of His own Son in your stead.

The very nature of truth is exclusive.

http://www.rzim.org/