The Right Side of Pain

"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain... In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat--for he grants sleep to those he loves" (Psalms 127:1-2)

Slice of Infinity snippets: "Describing the disparity between the mind of humanity and the mind of God, Abraham Heschel writes, “The [human] conscience builds its confines, is subject to fatigue, longs for comfort, lulling, soothing. Yet those who are hurt, and He Who inhabits eternity, neither slumber nor sleep.”(1) In other words, God never sleeps or slumbers because those who are hurting never sleep or slumber. Try as we may as caretakers we cannot be as God to the hurting. We can stay awake with them in their pain and suffering, we can care for them as neighbors, but the house in which the suffering find unfailing love is the Lord’s. This is the house to which we must bring them. This is the house in which we must live. In this season where we journey again to the Cross, might we be as the friends of the paralytic who carried him all the way to Christ.”

Chad's comments: I recently spent some time our pastor discussing reaching unbelievers; he said, “Find a person’s deepest pain and you will likely find what they fear the most. Find the thing they fear the most and you will likely find their deepest pain. Where we haven’t experienced love, pain and fear rule.” It is in the context of pain that I believe we have a great opportunity to minister. By reaching out and touching people in their need (quite possibly by sharing your own pain and sin), we can develop the relationship that may bring the trust to love.