New Wine

The problem of pain

There is a human tendency to avoid pain. As a child, we learn early on that pain is bad. Of course it is, right? It hurts!! It can’t therefore be good!! For example, if we touch something hot and it burns us, we get hurt. We then tend to avoid touching that hot object in future. (Usually!!)

I used to love to surf. I had a bunch of friends I would surf with, and I loved being out on the ocean away from the world, watching the waves crash. I was terrible at it, but I loved it. Then one summer I was with my family and I came off my board and my head went straight into a shallow sand bank. I had excruciating pain in my back and could barely get myself out of the surf and back down the beach to my family. The pain was so bad I couldn’t stay on the beach and had to go back to where we were staying to rest. I then passed out from the pain when I went to the bathroom and ended up having to go to hospital. In the end it was simply severe muscle spasm and I was ok…but surfing has never been the same for me since. I can’t ride a short board because I’m too scared of the huge waves I need to catch to ride one. I remember that pain and I don’t want to experience it again.

Interestingly though, from a medical perspective, pain is not necessarily a bad thing. You see, it is the body’s warning signal. It tells us that the body is suffering damage and alerts us that something needs to be done. People with nerve disorders such as multiple sclerosis, diabetic neuropathies, or people with spinal cord injuries may lack this important signal, which can result in much more severe injuries! Imaging if you did not have that signal to tell you that something was too hot? You would not know to remove your hand, and therefore might be more severely burned!!

Pain can also bring about something beautiful. Those of us who have given birth know that it is painful. Yet that pain brings about something so beautiful, something so amazing that every inch of that pain is worth it for the miracle of life that ensues. Once you hold that child in your arms, that pain is but a distant memory.

I believe the bible has a different perspective on pain too. Paul in Romans 5 says, “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Glory in our sufferings. Not moan about them. Not complain. Not even ‘grin and bear it’!! Glory in them!

In Acts, after Peter and the other disciples had been persecuted and flogged for sharing the gospel, Acts 5:41 says that, “the apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name”. They had suffered tremendous pain and disgrace, and they also knew that there would be far more to come. Yet they left rejoicing!!! Celebrating the fact that they had suffered! Why? Why did they celebrate something that we naturally try to avoid? How did they have the strength to rejoice in the midst of it?

The answer to these questions is simply, Jesus.

Jesus is our supreme example and He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)…and He suffered. He suffered everything that we could possibly suffer in this lifetime. He was rejected and betrayed by those He loved. He was shamed and disgraced in front of his peers. He was falsely accused. He was physically beaten to the point of death and then was forced to die the death of a criminal though He had done nothing wrong. And He did all of that for us.

You see, Peter and Paul and the early church weren’t crazy. They also weren’t really any different to you or I. They were not perfect; Peter was Jesus best friend yet when he was faced with persecution for that he denied that he even knew him. Paul persecuted followers of Christ before He came face to face with Jesus. However, they both came to a point where they understood three important truths. 1. They understood that Jesus was God. 2. They understood what He had done for them and the grace and mercy that He had shown them. 3. They stopped trying to live in their own strength.

Imagine if we could have that kind of a mind shift! Imagine if we could truly realise who Jesus is…He is the all-powerful Creator of the Universe, the One who orchestrated every moment in history to fit into His perfect plan, the only One who could take the weight of our sin upon His shoulders and triumph over the grave. Imagine if we could grasp just a small portion of the great mercy and grace that He has shown us in suffering in our place. Imagine if we could let go, stop trying to ‘be better’ and just dwell in the One who IS better, who can mould us and make us vessels that He can use for His glory, and who CAN and WILL see us through any trouble, trial or suffering we might face.

Imagine if we could see pain and persecution as something to be worthy of, rather than something to flee.

This is a journey that I am ever so slowly taking, and falling many times along the way. As a child and a teenager, I honestly believed that one day I would face persecution for my faith. Maybe it was reading about all of the Christian Martyrs, present day and in the centuries past, in books such as ‘Jesus Freaks’. Maybe it was just my own imagination or naivety. As a child, I imagined having a gun held to my head and refusing to deny my Saviour. Yet as an adult in Australia I have not faced that sort of persecution and still managed to deny my Saviour. Yes, as a child I was teased at times and it didn’t bother me. I am, however, ashamed at how many times I have been faced with the opportunity to stand up for my Jesus, when the worst that could happen would be losing a friend, or a colleague thinking badly of me, and I have been too afraid to do so. I am ashamed to say that I have stayed silent when I should have stood up for my faith, purely out of fear for my reputation.

 There are millions of Christians around the world suffering persecution as we speak. Yet they do not pray to be free of that persecution. I heard a quote the other day from an Egyptian Pastor, who asked not that the Christians in the west pray for them, but with them. That they pray not for their safety or protection from persecution, no, that they would rather pray that WHEN they face persecution that they would be bold in sharing the gospel, that they would see millions of Muslim people come to know Jesus and that if faced with death they would remain steadfast. Wow. They do not pray for the pain to be removed. They pray to be bold through it so that they might be able to make Christ known.

Over the last three years I have suffered a different sort of persecution and pain. Much of it has been emotional rather than physical. I have been through trials that I never imagined, and I have found myself crying out to God, desperate for Him to take it away. I have suffered loss, brokenness and a loneliness that at times has left me desperate for Jesus to take me home then and there. But as I have prayed through this time, and clung to God desperately to see me through this, I have seen that He is with me, and that He is Faithful. In addition, I see that He is ever so slowly working in me. Proverbs 17:3 says, “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.” My experience has been this: God allows pain and suffering in our lives at times and He does this for several reasons.

1. To draw us closer to Him and realise that we need to rely on Him, not our own strength. Sometimes it takes a challenge we cannot face to realise that God alone is our strength.

2. To mould us, refine us and burn away all that is unhelpful and unholy. In order to purify silver or gold, it has to be heated to extremely high temperatures to remove all of the impurities. I believe that God allows us to go through trying times to break away our faults and make us more like Him.

3. To bring forth something new. Just as the pain of childbirth brings new life, so suffering in our lives can bring out new strengths in our character; resilience, trust in God, faithfulness, kindness, self-control… the list is endless.

These are but a few. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that God is causing our pain or happy that we go through pain. I believe He is looking forward to the day when there will be no more pain and no more tears!! But I do believe that He is with us through the pain that we will all inevitably suffer, just as He did, and that He will bring something beautiful out of it.

The problem of pain, or the question of why do we suffer pain, is far more complex than what I have simply written above. C.S. Lewis wrote an entire book entitled, “The problem of pain” and he goes into far more detail and philosophical argument than I. I have only sought to share my journey, or a small part of what I am still in the process of learning. I am a work in progress.

My prayer, however, is that God would count me worthy to suffer for His name, that He would carry me through it and enable me to be bold so that others might come to experience His grace. One of my favourite songs at the moment is called ‘New Wine”, by Hillsong. It is basically the soundtrack for this current season of my life.

In the crushing
In the pressing
You are making
New wine
In the soil, I
Now surrender
You are breaking
New ground

So I yield to You and to Your careful hand
When I trust You I don't need to understand

Make me Your vessel
Make me an offering
Make me whatever You want me to be
I came here with nothing
But all You have given me
Jesus, bring new wine out of me

Words and music by Brooke Ligertwood

This is my prayer. That in the crushing, and pressing, when the pressure is too great for me to bear, that God would bring new wine out of me. I pray the same for you, dear friend.

Aimee