The Power of Pain

If CS Lewis is preoccupied in 'The Problem of Pain', then I am interested in 'The Power of Pain'. While almost all scholars attempt to reason with pain and how pain come about, beating around the bush of 'Why God'? I find it far more fruitful to stop asking God why and start realizing the aftermath of every calamities.

Ranging from suffering, toil, hard-labor, agony, heartache to abuse, pain has the power of transforming us into a somewhat higher spiritual being. My observation of the power of pain begun as I stepped my feet onto the shaky ground of real life and I think, pain is the most rewarding experience we can ever get. it is when we are chastened that we ascend ourselves a step higher onto the hierarchy of what it means to be alive. Sometimes we do not understand why but all things work for the good of those who love Him and has been called in accordance to His purpose.

I was just in the doctor's office when I came accross an article in an elite magazine. Being a lady, the article caught my attention, for it was on the making of a pearl. After all jeweleries are girls' best friends. Mikimoto was a Japanese pioneer in the industry and how he cultured pearls were described. It all started with a dirt, a small grain of sand or in Mikimoto's case, he found a tiny chipping of mussel's shell to be the best 'dirt'. This 'dirt' are inserted into the oyster by means of first tricking the oyster by placing it in warm temperature for it to loosen its grip and inserting the 'dirt' with needle points. Attempting this stage with a force do not work. Upon discovering that there is a foreign object inside, the oyster will first try to remove it and when the object is too small to be removed, enzymes are produced and soon, layers are formed and eventually a pearl is created.

It is such pain that forces us to 'produce enzymes' and such pain that made us a better person, untill we produce 'pearls' in this lifetime. The more problems that come our way, the more we are forced to grow and the better we get as we produce 'pearls'. It all starts in our hearts, inside our hard and protective shells. As we deal with problems that come, we are coating them with layers and layers of strength, untill what was our problem, became something precious. The power of pain, has it transformed you lives?

To Be Saved...

What does being saved really means?

That was a part of my Christmas sermon this year and I must say that woke me up, literally... I was halfway asleep during the semon, a confession, untill I heard that question and I guess I woke up... and not literally too actually. Suddenly I understood what is going on.

The pastor who delivered the sermon once took a job as a lifeguard on a beach. Naturally a lifeguard's duty is to save people who are drowing. What really happens however is that a upon seeing a drowning person, a lifeguard does not immediatelly save the person. In the natural state of panic, the drowing person would usually try hard to keep him/herself afloat by exerting actions. At this point, it is dangerous for the lifeguard to even get anywhere near that person. They might end up at the bottom together (talk about misery loves company). What usually happens is that the lifeguard will wait at a distance for the drowning person to calm down and give up trying to save himself. When the drowning person has finally settled down and gave up trying to fight things out by himself, the lifeguard will then gently extend his arm to loop it around the drowning person and together swim back ashore.

To me this is the most powerful message to round up year 2004. You see, as long as we do not give up control over our lives, as long as we fight on with our own strength, we can never be saved. As long as we depend on our limited strength, as long as we cling to our own, well come on now, very very weak dust made composition, He cannot save us. We have to let go and let God. Once we give everything up to Him, put our very own lives on His feet, we will swim ashore and afloat. He did not promise us that we will not encounter any drowning experience, but He promised to save us, if we let go and let God...

Thus so this new year, 2005, it will be a little different for me. While I usually plan for the next year, this time I am not planning on anything because I know well that He is in control and He has His assignments for me. Visions and Missions do not change, but assignment changes and it comes daily. Enough is today's trouble, tomorrow has its own troubles.

Salvation is my Vision, Emotion is my Mission. This January 1, 2005, I offer every part of my life as a living sacrifice, an Angel on Assignment.