Why the pain?

Most of us reading this devotion have suffered over something or someone over the past few months. Why does not God wipe out all suffering, pain, and the sources of all the suffering? Why doesn’t God do what the Marvel Comic, villain,  “Thanos” , does and simply snap his fingers and make us all holy, impervious to pain or disease or sadness— and thus end all this fuss about sin, etc.

The answer is found, crazy as it sounds, in the love of God.  If I were able, I would not let any of my sons ever be unhappy, or experience failure, or have one person mistreat them.  But then, that shows the shallowness of my parenting.  Our heavenly Father, who breathed into us life and made us in His image, knew that without pain, we would never become the true sons and daughters He has imagined. Finding God, and growing in Him, on this plane of existence, does not happen by simply avoiding sin, but by enduring pain….and associated with that pain,  embracing humility.

Pain and suffering can make us angry, indifferent to others, cold-hearted and feeling like we’ve been cheated, or it can humble us and remind us that we are, indeed, frail, mortal and that our lives are but a mist. To find God we must first find humility, there are no other options. And there’s no straighter, faster path to God than suffering…..and nothing destroys your search for God—-or your  growth— like pride.

Suffering and disappointments push us to our knees and, if we’re praying to Him to deliver us, it leads us to empty ourselves of our self-love, so that we can be filled by the Holy Spirit and over-joyed by His encompassing love. There’s not room for both. You love one and hate the other—that’s how Jesus described it. You cannot serve two masters.   So Paul was clear: Ephesians 4:2 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”  It’s the path to all the we need. He can take care of the rest!

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  And again, James 4:10: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Many years ago I took a trip to visit a boys’ orphanage in South America. On that trip I took several volunteers and about four youth from our summer camp. The youth that assisted us were from affluent families in the USA.  Anyway, there were 20 orphans, so we got 20 hats, 20 t-shirts and some candy from the mall here in North Carolina. When we got there the little boys were indescribably excited to see us and proudly showed us how they raised chicken for eggs,  and their neat little beds, and how they performed their daily chores—it was a very special visit and these boys made us feel like movie stars. They were all without mothers or fathers, abandoned on the streets of Valencia or simply dumped on the back alleys by parents that did not want to keep them.

And so after playing with them and allowing them to show us their new home and activities, we proceeded to hand out the gifts. But we found that one new boy had been added to the group, so there were now 21 boys. The ladies in our group quickly divided up the candy and toys so that it was not divided by 21, not 20, but we still only had 20 baseball hats and 20 t-shirts. So after talking to the orphan leader, we decided to give the 20 that were first there the 20 hats and t-shirts and that the last boy would just have to understand that we could not go back to Winston-Salem, NC for anther shirt and hat.

And so the youth that I brought from the USA passed out the shirts and hats, but when the 21st boy did not get his portion, he did nothing. He did not pout, cry or ask why he was forgotten.  He smiled and was grateful for the candy and toys.  But one of the youth from our camp asked the orphan leader why the new boy did not get upset or become hurt that we did not bring him a hat or T-shirt, and he responded that the boy had been an orphan his entire life and was used to being forgotten and ignored.  When the fourteen year-old teenager that I brought from Raleigh, NC, heard this he quickly left the room, sobbing and obviously quite bothered by what he heard. And when he came back, he was not wearing his t-shirt or his hat——he had taken them off, wrapped them in a bag from our van, and gave them to the 21st orphan.

That little orphan’s humility brought out compassion and empathy from this wealthy 14 year old boy in a manner no preacher ever could.  It’s the best story of humility and Godly  compassion I have ever witnessed first hand.  That little orphan was an angel, displaying true humility, and it touched the heart of this teenager. Do my children—-or your children—have such humility when things don’t go their way, and are they as compassionate to those who don’t have a good life as this 14 year old from Raleigh was?

Consider for a moment the people that we celebrate in sports, politics, entertainment, business and especially in the pulpit. Are they people of true humility, like this little orphan, or do they present themselves as the accomplished, polished, witty, the best-in-the-world-at-what-they-do, the most beautiful, eloquent, and articulate of all mankind?

Please think of the folks that really touch your heart, and think of the ones that touched God’s heart, i.e. the ones that He celebrated, e.g. Moses, Noah, Abraham and Isaiah— godly men of integrity and passion for the Lord. Isaiah cried out when He saw a vision of God,  “Woe is me!… I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

These men all showed abounding humility and God smiled at them—He was proud of them.  Why did they have this humility? In Isaiah’s case, why did fear grip his heart?  He was quite aware of how small he was compared to God and just how filthy he was as stood before the holiest of all beings.

In the gospels Jesus spoke about the lowest of the low, a tax collector, and the most respected of the respected, a Pharisee. The tax collector (a Publican) and the very religious fellow (a Pharisee) went to the temple to pray. “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  Jesus said that the TAX COLLECTOR, a man despised for his vocation, left the temple justified because of his repentance, remorse, and humility.

In my work at our camp I realize that there are primarily two types of people when things don’t get done or there’s a mistake:(1) those that blame others (the arrogant) and, (2) those that blame themselves (the humble). There are those that constantly hide behind excuses and those who offer up no excuses. There are those that point the finger at the faults of others and those that never stoop to try to explain away the mistakes that they made. As you can imagine, one of these types are difficult to work and live with, while the other type are an inspiration and breath of fresh air!

But what am I? Do I blame others for my lazy actions and foolish decisions? Do I admit my own shortcomings (before others are tempted to point them out), or do I carefully orchestrate the situation to make me appear the hapless victim? It’s so easy to make myself an innocent prey for all my hardships, but all so humbling to acknowledge that I am “what is wrong” in my family or business or ministry, or relationship or the world!  Am I willing to accept the truth about my own ego, pride and general lack of humility.

G. K. Chesterton said that ultimately,  “Humility is truth” . “ Once we are awaken to real truth about our selves we  are intellectually  made to know ourselves as we really are – and in our life we soberly are taken, in relation to God and to men, to our proper place.”  If you are really truthful with yourself, you simply cannot be vain or proud!  Who you really  are—not the charade or act you present to the world.

Isaiah was a humble man—wise enough to know that that He stood before God with no excuse for his sin or association with others that sinned.. Likewise the tax collector knew that arguing about how it was not his fault for being a corrupt tax collector would go nowhere with an omniscient heavenly Father. So they both did a very smart thing: They admitted that their mistakes and errors were their own fault and not the fault of someone else. God takes delight in this—all the time—-and I can see why. Nobody, particularly God, likes a whiner, a fraud or a coward. It takes courage to accept the blame and admit that you deserve to be held accountable.

I want God to take delight in me!!!  Don’t you?

Aren’t we blessed to worship a God that rewards confession and sorrow for sin  with forgiveness and restoration? It was said that the closer Saint Francis came to God, the more aware he was of his sins, and the more he sought to turn away from those sins. There was nothing fake about his humility.  He once said. “Above all the graces and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it is the grace of overcoming oneself, and accepting willingly, out of love for Christ, all the suffering, injury, discomfort and contempt that leads to humility”.   In fact, he came to desire those attacks on his body and integrity as proof of his intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Jesus set the tone when He taught, ’You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of the others — like the Son of Man, Who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life to redeem many people.‘ (Matthew 20:25-28).  But what do we teach our children when we push them to be first in line, to get the best seat or to have the biggest birthday party?

Humility is the virtue of casting aside your pride, hubris, conceit, narcissism and arrogance. Just as pride is the worst, foremost, and root of all sins….humility is its cure. Jesus is the best example for those who seek to humbly follow God's plan for His life (Matthew 11:29). He is meek and His burden light.  Just be honest with yourself and boldly seek the truth about yourself.

CS Lewis: “To even get near a humble person, even for a moment, is like a drink of cold water to a man in a desert.Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call “humble” nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.Probably all you will think about a truly humble man is that he seemed a happy, intelligent person who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel (a little) envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. A humble man  will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.” True humility is not a matter of  thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

These are the few ways we can practice humility from Mother Theresa:

To speak as little as possible of one's self.

To mind one's own business.

Not to want to manage other people's affairs.

To accept a compliment and thank the one offering it.

To pass over the mistakes of others.

To accept insults and injuries.

To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.

To be kind and gentle even under provocation.

Spend time listening to others

Be grateful for what you have

Ask for help when you need it

Seek feedback from others on a regular basis

Paul said this: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . .” —

Galatians 2:20

These words mean the breaking and collapse of my “independence” brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding.

Has that breaking of my independence come?  Have I honestly looked in the mirror and seen just how ugly I really am outside the grace and favor of God? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ . . . .”

The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a servant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.  One visitor a year who hears God’s call would be sufficient for God to have called this little church—or our little camp,  into existence.  Let’s be honest and allow Him to implant in our hearts true humility —and then watch this our fellowship grow.

And if you are sincerely interested in acquiring the humility of Jesus, here’s a prayer to try:

“Lord, reveal to me areas of pride in my life and replace them with the sweet humility of Jesus.”   Pray this prayer for 30 days and you will be astounded at the areas where you are proud; you will be delighted to chose to give them up and become more like Jesus. You will be humbled.