One of my favourite quotes lately is from CS Lewis, the author of the Narnia Chronicles. He said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
I find myself thinking more and more about this reality. We can be a little bit aware of the Creator when things are going well. We might once in a while give a nod of thanks to God for the good things in life. When we are wrestling with the right thing to do, we might hear the voice of God in our conscience, reminding us of what we really should do, if we haven’t already drown out that voice by continually ignoring it. But when we are in pain, then it is when God can really get our attention. When we are in pain we come face to face with our own needs and inadequacies. We realize that we need help and can’t do it all on our own.
It is often in our pain that we tend to also begin to pay a little more attention to God. We might get angry at the Creator for allowing bad things to happen to us, without always taking responsibility for our part in getting in the situation in the first place. We might cry out for rescue, or help, or healing in desperation. “Help! I’m at the end of my rope!” Pain puts us in a place that we can hear God shout to us, “Here I am! Just stick out your hand! I’m already reaching out to you. I can hold you up, heal you and bring you through this.”
This is not to say that the Creator makes the painful things happen in our lives. Pain and life go hand in hand. God doesn’t bring us hurt just to get our attention. But no matter who we are, there is going to be garbage that comes to us, there are going to be hurtful things done to us, painful situations that we cannot avoid. Some of it is of our own making. Some of it is because of other broken people around us. Still more is just that life throws us crap. But no matter where it came from, God is there to shout, “I love you!” in the middle of it all. The Creator is able to take that garbage, reshape it and make it into a work of art that heals.
The question that we are left with is will we listen? Will we listen when life is painful to put our lives into the Creator’s hands and receive healing and new life? Will we listen when God says, “I love you. Will you love me back?” When we begin to listen to God’s shouts in our pain, it becomes easier and easier to then hear that same voice in our conscience so we begin to make better choices, and eventually to hear that same voice in the pleasures of life. What do you hear?
