When I think about pain and the way CS Lewis talks about it, I'm reminded of the first essay we read; Meditation in a Toolshed. In that meditation Lewis mentioned pain and how until someone has looked along pain, they can't truly comprehend it. A psychologist cannot say that pain is only nerves sending synapses to the brain. Pain is also "any experience, whether physical or mental, which the patient dislikes".
Even though I have only read a chapter from Lewis' book on pain, I feel like I have a better understanding of the subject. Oddly enough through the whole reading I found my mind wandering to the question as to why pain even exists? I mean I understand the fall and even reading Plantinga's third chapter (of Engaging God's World) was helpful but why pain? The answer I came up with was evil. Because of human kinds spoiling of shalom, evil came to be. Adam and Eve, (along with the rest of us) have decided to live against God, each other, and God's world. As a result of this rebellion, sin, pain, and other unpleasant qualities exist on this "groaning" earth. God never wanted it to happen like this. Yes He gave us free will and He wants us to make the decision to follow and love Him but He (I'm assuming) initially wanted it to go a different route. I'm not saying that God had no say in the matter because obviously He could've prevented to fall if He wanted to but we let Him down. Does that mean the Lord is punishing us for our mistake? No. We must face the consequences of our own actions.
While re-reading that last paragraph, I realized how "Debbie downer" it sounded. I apologize :) Here comes the happy part... redemption is coming! We've talked about redemption many times over the past two weeks in class but for me it never gets old. I forget the exact words but I remember Plantinga saying in his book that this life is not what God intended for us. We're supposed to be with Him for eternity, that's why nothing here can fully satisfy us. How encouraging! Pain and sin are only temporary chains. Soon enough we will be set free. Forever.
I like how you ended with the part about redemption. I think its important to realize that although we have sin and pain it is only temporary. We have something much better to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you weren't afraid to tell it like it is. Sometimes we try not to talk about the bad stuff because its not fun to talk about. But the beautiful thing we can remember is, as you said, that redemption is coming!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I agree with you (though I know that many would) that God does not WANT sin. i am not saying he does, I am just saying that I don't that something/someone/some force make's God play by certain rules, one of which makes sin in the world. I don;t mind your opinion on the matter, for though we may differ, our image of God is probably, in fact, the same. He is omnipotent.
ReplyDeleteHey, that's cool that you were questioning why we have pain. Even though it is necessary and it helps us grow, why PAIN? Couldn't we have something else less 'painful' as a consequence of evil? Maybe, maybe not, that's just a thought that came to mind when I was reading your post. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteJust to throw out another thought that I've been wondering about and that pertains, could pain have existed before the fall? I mean if it didn't did Adam and Eve just never fall and get hurt, or did it just not hurt when they did? And if it didn't hurt when they did does that mean that it didn't damage their bodies in any way so that they didn't need the pain to tell them something was wrong with their body? Theirs also the fact that the curse on woman after the fall was an increase in pain which seems to imply a previous presence. Just some thoughts to throw out there.
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