LOVE AND PAIN

The pain experienced by some people is so strong that their longing for love is unsatiable. Ironically, those who desire so much love very often miss the love that is made available to them. They refuse to see it or they may not recognize the grace offered. In a sense this is what makes pain more painful. When love has been deprived from someone at a very early age, it is hard for a person to recognize it, even though the longing for it maybe intense. And because love can be mistaken as something aggresive, it can be treated with suspicion, thus discouraging the giver from pursuing his good intentions. Eventually making its potential beneficiary more isolated.

Perhaps it is the expectation on how love should come to them. Or it is even the idea that love should come as the solution to their immediate problems that blinds people from receiving God's grace. Yet it is not the nature of love to solve problems. Don't you see this? Is it the food that you give to the hungry that really makes them happy? Food definitely satisfies the pangs of hunger. But it is the eventual realization that someone really cares about him that brings the joy to that person. A sum of money given to a financially strapped individual may bring relief, but the experience of someone willing to share with you what he has is what moves a soul to tears.

What then does love do if it does not solve problems? Jesus loves all of us so much and proved it by his willingness to die on the cross. He died a violent death, if that is what is needed to wake us up. In Matthew's 11:30 Jesus said "take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest, for my yoke is good and my burden is light". Jesus did not say if you follow me you will not carry any burden. Yet many find rest in carrying a burden when they follow Christ. Perhaps it is the assurance that "I am with you" in your difficulties and suffering that gives you that joy to persevere. It is not the freedom from a yoke that gives us happy. But it is the consolation that someone recognizes our pain, walks with us in our sufferings, helps us with our burdens and smiles with us as He wipes and sweat and tears that give us true joy.