The Sacrament of Pain - Part I
%20uncovered.jpg)
One thing that I do remember about childhood was that I did not like "getting the belt." No one that I know of actually liked the spanking across the butt with the dreaded belt. It was because of this fear I did my best to avoid that particular form of discipline at all costs. Since I was the third child and my brother Jeff (the second oldest) was seemingly always asking for a beating, I slipped under the parental radar much of the time.
This pattern of avoidance of pain at all cost has negatively imprinted my personality. Avoidance of pain is not the goal of life. As a matter of fact I have a developing thesis that I am becoming more convinced of. That thesis is that pain should be considered a Sacrament by the church. The Sacrament of Pain. In the church of my youth a sacrament was defined as having been instituted by Christ, using visible elements (like wine, bread, water) and being a means (or portal through God’s grace in Jesus flows) of grace. Everything that I am learning about the pain that is experienced in our lives fits the description. The Sacrament of Pain.
Even further I am coming to believe that pain is holy. God understands the pain in your life and somewhat harder to grasp, allows. Even further, on occasion, He authors it himself, sent like precision guided munitions to destroy a part of our lives for the greater glory of God. Whether he caused it or not isn’t the question, the fact is that pain is God’s very effective tool.
It kinda changes my outlook on the things that I consider crappy in my life. Knowing that I need the pain that I am experiencing to make more like Jesus Christ can make it somewhat easier to swallow – somewhat. Yet most days, like a little child, I still want to avoid it. I have very stubborn areas of my life that I refuse to surrender. Areas that need the door kicked in and the immaturity rooted out like a terrorist hiding behind a human shield. The difficulty is that immaturity is a comfortable, familiar place to exist and The Sacrament of Pain is designed to destroy that familiarity and replace it with desperation. (to be continued….)
posted by C.M. Coon at Wednesday, October 12, 2005
6 Comments:
Pain makes you think about this every momment. Prove it to yourself, and next time you stub your toe in the dark ... see if you can think about yesteryear, or you future plans. You can only think about NOW!
The good news is that NOW is the only time you can interface with God. He is the "I AM" not the "i will be" or the "i was." You can't live in the past or the present, and now is the time to surrender to Him. Thus we DIE DAILY, rather then amputate occationally.
think what you said """I have very stubborn areas of my life that I refuse to surrender""" Are you not trying to avoid the now - avoid this moment of full surrender? Opting instead for an amputation program of one area then another? Yet you only really have NOW to deal with, and the way to deal with it is full surrender. Dying daily!
Maturity and surrender do not come one area at a time. Sure, that is popular in the churches, but you won't find it in the Bible.
Let pain have its perfect result in you, and choose today, right now, to be a living sacrifice. Forget about the future or the past.
I am the same way. I like to avoid pain, and confrontations that may cause pain. I remember also trying to help others to avoid pain in their lives, but was I really helping?
I would stuff toilet paper down my brother's pants so he wouldn't feel the sting of the belt as much. Was he then learning from the pain that was caused, or was he too pushed to avoidance?
Its true, however, that pain shapes us. We haven't endured pain like Christ, and many never will. But the small pains we do endure shape us to be more like him. Instead of avoiding, we should be persisting. Pain is a fact of life-we can't ever fully avoid it.
Trent,
i appreciate your thoughts. i especially like the living in the "now" aspect of life. we only have the now.
Yet, as I read the Bible I only see one person completely mature and completely surrendered to the will of God and that was Jesus. the rest of us have areas that we don't surender, that we aren't mature. even Paul, even Peter, all the "greats" talked about in scripture were completely infected with their human condition, even while serving God. The whole Romans 7 discussion where Paul is wrestling with his own sinfulness that continually rears it's ugly head. "I don't do what I want and I do what I don't want to" is fairly descriptive of the situation where God allows or uses pain for discipline (Hebrews 12)
I hope this clarifies what i'm trying to say.
C2+
Craig,
I hope that I can clearify what I was trying to say.
I was not saying that one can arrive, and then live perfectly from then on. I was trying to say that we are either walking according to the flesh in this moment or we are walking according to the Spirit in this moment. And the next moment, just the same. (consider Peter, who was praised for confessing that Jesus was the Christ, and the next moment rebuked.)
AS we walk according to the Spirit, we are no longer living, but Christ is living in us. Anything less then EXACTLY Christ living in my flesh in this moment falls short of the glory of God.
The goal, then, is not to surrender this area, and keep this other unsurenderred areas of my life. And later to surrender another area, and another, until it is all surrendered. Rather, maturity is not an amputation program, where we progressively surrender areas. There is nothing progressive about it, for a Christian has all that he needs on day one to live the deepest spiritual life.
Maturity is a weakening program where we lessen and lessen our self-confidence and increase our confidence in Jesus to live through us.
With less confidence in us and more confidence in Him, then in our weaknesses ... He is strong. (and relying on Him is something that any Christian can do FROM DAY ONE.)
A mature Christian will have more and more moments surrendered to Him ... but areas don't play a roll ... surrender is ALL or NOTHING. There is no such thing as partial surrender.
There is no such thing as a progressive surrender either. What does the decision YESTERDAY to give an area have to do with now? The matter is what I will do NOW, not what progressive area I surrendered yesterday.
The fact that maturity that leads to more moments of surrender, comes at the expense of our self-confidence and that is what a the immature will not release.
This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full attention: A mature Christian has one advantage that a young Christian does not. That advantage is weakness. And that weakness leads them to do what ANY Christian can do - fully surrender. But, because they are weak, they will have more consecutive moments in surrender, and fewer consecutive moments in rebellion.
Hey Trent,
Thanks for the healthy debate, I appreciate it and I like the fact that it causes us to think through these things. I believe that I understand what you are saying and I agree with much of what you say….
But I struggle with knowing just what complete surrender is in the practical. Can I, a man who is in- dwelt by the Spirit of the living God and who, at the same time, possess a sinful human nature until the day that I die, ever completely surrender to God? Was Peter in the moment of confessing Christ COMPLETELY, without fail in any part of his being, surrendered to Christ? Or instead was he surrendered as much as he was able?
Where do you see those moments of complete surrender by people in Scripture?
I see people all throughout the Bible that are a mixed bag of holy and flesh, if you will. I like the theory that you speak of, but I struggle with the practical implications. I just don’t know if we have the capacity, this side of heaven, for complete surrender and if I did have that, what would I be trusting in, my ability to surrender or the grace of Christ? I also know and believe that any ability that I have to surrender IS A GRACE. It must always be the grace of Christ that has set me free and is setting me free in this moment. It is grace that sets us free. We all have fallen short, and we all continue to fall short of the Glory of God. I think that this is much more complicated than we can even understand.
I love where you said: “Maturity is a weakening program where we lessen and lessen our self-confidence and increase our confidence in Jesus to live through us. With less confidence in us and more confidence in Him, then in our weaknesses ... He is strong. (and relying on Him is something that any Christian can do FROM DAY ONE.).”
When I was a new Christ follower I had the same Spirit living in me as now, just as complete, just as powerful, yet at the same time I didn’t see so much of what God had for me. Take for example my finances. I trusted Christ yet I kept back part of who I was when it came to money. I didn’t understand that everything was his, at this point was I completely surrendered to him? Or was I completely surrendered to Him as much as I was able? The fact that I needed the grace of God to cover “more” of me then, than now, is irrelevant, I still need (ed) the grace of God to cover me.
I cannot trust in the least this body of death that I inhabit, like St. Paul I cry: 21”So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7
When I want to surrender, evil is right there with me… Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ
Still scratching my head….
Craig
Yes, a Christian CAN die daily. It is something that any Christian can do, not just the ones that are old in the faith.
We have but one resonable act of worship ... that we present our bodies as living sacrifices. A sacrifice has no rights, and is completely surrendered.
The hardest thing that we can ever do, is have no thought of rebellion ... to want only and exactly what God would want from us. If we can get into that mindset a couple of times a week, then we will have more reward for those two moments then a lifetime of pious devotion that springs only from the calculation of our carnal mind about what we should do, even if that carnal mind has "areas" that it has surrendered.
I will tell you that by the Spirit one can do so much more then one or twice a week, once they put abiding to practice.
What a glorious thing for any Christian to say whether new or old ... that there is no explanation for their activity at any moment except to say that Jesus was actually living through them. Yet never is that ever said before absolute surrender.
Post a Comment
<< Home