To know pain, to know gain

My current position in writing this, is after viewing "The Passion of the Christ". It being good Friday, I thought that it would be appropriate for me to reflect on the death of Jesus. Actually, I have been doing that all day.

I heard a monologue today about the betrayal, trial, and Crucifixion. One that nearly made me cry while I was working. The piece was set to music that I would have never thought would be put to this sacred story, yet if fit so well. The oratory was set in a pattern of peaks and valleys. It brought thoughts of my beloved to my mind.

When the piece was done, the speaker gave his thoughts on the necessity to remember this heart breaking and gut wrenching story. He said in so many words that in our society today, we have become a people who self medicate and kill the pain so that we feel no more. We either indulge in drugs, alcohol, sex, or self pity. I am sure that the entire list of all self indulgences is much longer. We have come to a dangerous point that the ability to cope with pain has escaped us. Instead of turning to healthy means of grieving or turning to someone who can truly help us, we give in to the one thing that cannot under no certain terms save us, ourselves.

All of our pain killing is focused on one thing, and that is to make ourselves feel better as soon as possible. From that though, where do we learn? Where do we gain a better understanding of our position, our purpose? If we fear failure, how do we learn from our mistakes? If everyone gets a trophy in the end, who do we look up to for inspiration?

This causes me to wonder what my medication is, my pain killer. What is your pain killer? What do we turn to when life does not go our way? Do we learn, or do we do our best to keep from feeling. Pain is good. It is not so fun while in the middle of the pain, yet we make changes from pain. Pain is where we learn.

Jesus felt pain. He felt it to the full extent that the weight of all sin would bear upon him. It was not all physical though. All too often when thinking of the crucifixion my mind thinks of the physical trials that Jesus was put under. I believe now though, that the greatest pain was felt in betrayal, denial, hatred, contempt, cursing, spitting, mockery, the list goes on and on. These are all things that were done to his spirit. That cuts deeper than any nail.

Please, remember the next time that you are in a situation where you feel wronged, Jesus felt it too. He saw the pain through to the very end. The good news is, that you can do the same. You can do it, with out pain killers.