where is God when it hurts - part four

A Critique of Culture
Yancey rightly questions our culture's false perceptions regarding pain, "Not only is pain useful as a warning - it may also be an essential element in our richest experiences....We are told that pain is the antithesis of pleasure....Our distorted viewpoint helps foster the myth that pain and pleasure are diametrically opposed: our life styles murmur it to us every day" (41-2).

This is a tough pill to swallow, yet we must contend with the apparent opposing worldviews. Though not always obvious, our culture and the societies in which we live - both rightly and wrongly - tell us that pain is "bad" - "Have a sore back? Take some Aleve." Americans, including myself, tend to conceptualize pain as something that must be mastered with technology (42). Our culture tends to remove us from the natural cycle of pain and death in the animal world - we experience these things vicariously through alternative media outlets like television, movies, magazines, the internet, and books. This kind of vicarious living produces numbness. We can become numb to the natural rhythms of creation. Yancey says, "It is too easy for us to perceive the sensations of life as something which must be done to us. We don't see pleasure as something we reach out for and actively attain after struggle. If it involves pain, we abandon the search" (43).

"On a higher level," Yancey continues, "most worthwhile human accomplishments involve a long history of struggle...The pleasure after the pain absorbs it...Jesus used childbirth as an analogy: nine months of waiting, intense labor, then absolute ecstasy (John 16:21)" (47).

Yancey closes this section with this thought, "Pain cannot be extracted from life's experiences and roundly condemned. A knee-jerk reaction against God for allowing pain is futile [see Job]...and often it is a necessary step to pleasure and fulfillment" (49).

I like that - "Pain is a necessary step to pleasure and fulfillment." Anything worth doing or anything worth being or attaining will ultimately cost you something of tremendous value. It requires investment and sacrifice [among other things]. Childbirth is just one example. Another example are athletes who are dedicated to their sports and put the time, energy, and training in order to compete at a high level.

I don't think that we need to necessarily "embrace" or "encourage" pain - but we do need to recognize that without pain we don't really know what pleasure is. Pain - though uncomfortable for us to experience - is necessary to living a fulfilled life.

More to come...