And that makes for a good segue to talk about pain.
Since starting this blog I've never mentioned any particulars of my background, my story here. Never have had the desire to wax long about it or dive deep, and what has been said now is brief and fairly descriptive.
What seems really interesting is, as obsessive as the Body is about knowledge, it seems to be even more fanatically counter-obsessive about pain.
Pain (also referred to in the bible as hardship, trials, suffering, discipline, etc) is painted by churches as of the devil. It must be shooed away, prayed away, anointed away, taken a stand against, ordered to go to hell, commanded to depart, blah blah blah. God most assuredly and absolutely does not want any of His sweet, precious, little buttercups to be in pain. Don't you know that?!?
Why else might it be that pain is seen as accursed?
It doesn't bode well for the pulpit to say that pain can be of God, sometimes is of God. This would lead to dwindling attendance numbers, which in turn would put the building mortgage and staff salaries in peril. (And God would **never** want that, now would He?)
Churches have much better numbers when this era's marketing message is proclaimed: God LOVES you, and has a WONDERFUL plan for your life.
And there we have it: the Blessing Paradigm. The overboding message of today's Church. The notion that life is to be pothole and speedbump free, and the instant it isn't, that is the devil and God wants nothing but to change that asap.
That's the first step. The second step of the paradigm is God's unquenching desire to do nothing but shower you with so many blessings you can't contain yourself.
This is a very cunning message. Very slick. Very crafty. Entire empires have been built on it. And there are some good teachers who have succumbed to its message and its numbers. But that's getting ahead a bit. For now let's stick with the pain is evil, pain is not of God stuff.
Have you ever been to a church that had a prayer-based altar call during the service? One where they have "prayer partners" up front who will pray with you? How is this whole prayer time marketed? Something along the lines of "If you have a need in your life--relational, financial, maybe pertaining to a job--we just want to pray with you." Some churches will add the additional tag line something along the lines of "we just want to agree with you in prayer, that God wants to help you break through what you're going through".
The message is: if you have crap going on in your life, in any regard, it's not of God and He wants to right the ship that has somehow turned on its side.
So, what then? Is this saying that the converse is true? That those of us who Follow must have some type of oh-my-God crisis going on in our lives 24/7?
No, not at all. Rather, it's saying that there will be times as Followers where our lives will be poured out like a drink offering, and this, friend, is of God.
If this isn't taking place on some kind of basis, then Houston we have a problem.
7 comments:
If Cyrano de Bergerac
Fell prey to the blades of fifty men
With a heart and a sword he'd drive them back
Perchance to see Roxanne's eyes light up the sky again
And when beauty kind and full of grace
Again denied the beast her hand
The beast he turned and hid his face
And tried with all his might and magic to understand
And once upon a time
You know I used to wonder why
You know no one should need to cry
In pain of a heart forbade to fly
But you learn to say goodbye
As you whisper beneath a sigh
Sweet pain
Can't you plainly see?
Sweet pain
You know it matters to me
Sweet pain
Won't you make me feel at home?
Sweet pain
Don't you dare leave me alone
Sometimes a life that seems hard to take
Is soothed for a while by an old friend
Leaving a bad need in its wake
Sad how, some friendships never ever seem to end
Well all of my heroes up and died
Songs and a dream are left for me
What did them in, not suicide
Just a lengthy friendship and a dream of how it could be
And isn't it a crime?
Was it more than they could bear?
You know they did not even care
At all and they might have something there
But I'm here and I don't see where
All I hear is their silent prayer
Sweet pain
Is it so terribly wrong?
Sweet pain
To want to come along
Sweet pain
Won't you make me smile?
Sweet pain
If only for a while
Can you feel what I feel?
So we can establish that the pain is real
Don't be afraid and I'll do the same for you
And we'll just hang on and we'll make it, make it through
There's got to be a reason it works out this way
And there's something deep inside me
That makes me have to play
For you
For you
In no position to give advice
My heart it spoke and I wrote it down
And you know every wisdom has its price
My head up in the stars
And my feet planted firmly on the ground
When will I embrace this life I see?
I've been wondering for so long
Thinking back, the truth may be
I've been unaware but I've been living it all along
And it didn't cost a dime
And it did not come for free
It just would not let me be
But it never conquered me
Just a doorway and a key
And I think that we both agree
Sweet pain
Is sometimes what you need
Sweet pain
It allows the blood to bleed
Sweet pain
From the moment of your birth
Sweet pain
You know it keeps you here on Earth
-blues traveler "sweet pain"
It may seem like a paradox but I've found that pain can actually heal. If all pain were "of the devil" then he probably kicks himself when we come out the other end stronger than when we went in. jp
aha...jp detects something here, Church. There's a lot, and jp is def on one of several trails with a scent.
And MJ posts the words to a blues song...
Heard it said "the blues deifies pain, and the Church runs as fast as It can away from it".
Even though Jesus had the power to revive the dead....he still cried for Lazurus. Why do you suppose?
Beautiful. Yeah, there was pain involved there for many, including Jesus.
"the blues deifies pain, and the Church runs as fast as It can away from it"
Now you're quoting me back to me...that's pretty funny.
You know, the thing with the blues and with the lyric above
"Can you feel what I feel?
So we can establish that the pain is real
Don't be afraid and I'll do the same for you
And we'll just hang on and we'll make it, make it through"
When we are asked to deny the pain in an effort to make others comfortable something in us rebels against this selfishness and says "no, that's not how we are supposed to be!" You hold very tightly to something someone is trying to steal from you. These things...music, art, another human saying "yeah man, that really sucks" loosens one's grip on the pain and helps one to more easily let it go.
The other thing about the blues and other forms of expressing grief and loss is that without them, we may very well begin to think that we are crazy to feel as we do if we are simply left alone in it. It's unfortunate that most people hide their pain from others and try to appear more together than they are. Because they do this, they never really feel the deep bonds of brotherhood that scripture promises. WE need one another to "establish that the pain is real" That is why we are bid to grieve and why Jesus grieves here even though he can bring his friend back to life.
The blues, and other forms of music and expression fly in the face of denial and connect people through the experience of pain. They put pain in the forefront as an innoculation against denial because denial reaps death.
I think you can deify just about anything...but the blues, are necessary in a world that is so messy yet ao bent on pretending to be clean.
yeah, this is one thing I don't understand about today's institutionalized church culture. The whole culture of "all togetherness" which is projected. It's rampant.
Like I said in the post, the Way does not mean we must have some oh-my-God stuff going on 24/7. We don't.
Rather, it's the way the Body views and approaches trial. It's suppressing. It is suppressing God.
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