Escape Or Press In?
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"Pain is the common denominator of all humanity" ~ Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal.
The Common Denominator: Pain
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Faced with a 2 yrs old child diagnosed with leukemia n frequent visit to A&E, Michael Kelley realised that regardless of race, social circles, nationality etc, everyone in the waiting room of the hospital has the same thing, pain, including emotional pain of seeing love ones in pain. And they all seek comfort from pain.
Escape or Press In?
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It's the same with life and pain comes as result of Adamic fall away from God. But we all try to seek comfort eg with morphine which dulls the pain. In pain, we either (i) seek escape through drugs, work, pornography, relationships and even church, (ii) start questioning God but not continuing on to the end of trail for fear of what we find there or (iii) engage pain and God and pressing in. God is the beginning and the end of all things, including our laments. If we press in, we will encounter God in our pain.
The Lesson of Job
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Just like Job in the bible, he was the center of a cosmic wager. Tough as it was for him, even when encountered with his friends' conclusion his pain was a result of his sin (he was a righteous man), he pressed in instead of escape. Through pages of engaging God, his questions of "whys" only encountered God's answers of "who" Job wasn't and who God is and what He is capable of.
The Question for You & Me
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Sometimes in our pain, we may choose to (i) escape, (ii) engage God but yet not wanting to walk the full journey to encounter Him at the end or (iii) fully engage the pain and God. For me, I'm at number (ii) now but thank God for the revelation. We will sometimes never know the "whys" of our pains but God wants us to know the "who He is" i our pains. So, escape or press in?
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