Transformed by pain

 We are all motivated by two things: pain and pleasure. We are motivated toward pleasure; we are motivated to avoid pain. Look carefully at this familiar passage. See what it teaches us about pain avoidance:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. John 15:1–6 (NIV2011)

If you don’t abide in Christ you find pain. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Ouch.

Some people think living for God is painful, and it is. So is living without God.

If you do abide in Christ you find pain. Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be more fruitful. In this world you will have trouble. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. The Father disciplines those He loves. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

There is something about pain. There is something about hardship. There is something about trouble. Pain tenderizes the heart. Pain drives us to our knees. Pain calls us to cry out to God. Not just pray—cry out to God. Only people in pain do that.

C. S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[1]

If you teach, make one of your primary teaching aims that of preparing people for the pain that is coming their way. Tell them often of the storm that looms. Don’t let the storm surprise them. Tell them winter is coming. Tell them that God disciplines those He loves.

I love this poem:

When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He’s about.

– Anonymous