I tend to agree with Elisabeth. I hesitate to agree but I think I know that pain has to come to all of us, and of course everyone's pain is specific to them. What might be a deal and a half to someone is but a sorry inconvenience for someone else, and interestingly enough, God knows those specifics. Whatever the case it can bring us to Him and that is a good thing. I know it brought me to Him. Pain is not always a bad thing. :) Always easier to say that in retrospect. Of course, I know He was the One, the Loving One who drew me in to Himself. Pain may have just been the vehicle.
"I am not a theologian or a scholar, but I am very aware of the fact that pain is necessary to all of us. In my own life, I think I can honestly say that out of the deepest pain has come the strongest conviction of the presence of God and the love of God."
Elisabeth Elliot
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I've been listening to something from Steve McVey that goes in depth on the subject of pain and suffering, and brokenness, and how it is a necessary thing, and how it truly is a vehicle to bring us close to Him.
One example of many is Steve's own experience that he talks about in the Grace Walk book in which he cried out in complete brokenness, which led to submission and ultimately to trust.
I also love something else he's brought up from time to time. We think the Bible says "God won't put on you more than you can bear." But it doesn't say that. It does say that He won't let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But as far as pain, suffering, tribulation, etc, He will often allow us to get into positions which are truly too much for us to bear.
I like the RSV wording of 2 Cor 1:8-10. "For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again."
They had more weight on them than they could bear, so much that they "despaired of life itself." But it was ultimately for the purpose of bringing them into a closer reliance on God.
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