Do You Care That I’m in Pain?

By Natasha Pavez, 18, Australia

PART 1 – Disillusionment of self in suffering

I’ve been looking for a lifeline,
Is there anybody out there?
Can you pull me from this ocean of despair?
I’m drowning in the pain, breaking down again
Looking for a lifeline

This is the chorus to the song “Lifeline” by secular American band Papa Roach. And it’s a song that I’ve been listening to a lot lately.

The obvious recurring theme throughout the rock tune is the search for hope in the midst of pain. Truth be told, we all go through pain. But it is something that we don’t like to see happen to those around us or much less experience it ourselves. It gets especially difficult when it is our Christian friends who suffer aimlessly without remembering God.

Recently, I had this conversation with a friend of mine, Lauren, which got me thinking about this disillusionment in pain. As she was like a little sister to me, her words weren’t shocking, but it wasn’t comforting either.

“Everything just doesn’t feel right at the moment. I don’t have any of my friends left and I’ve just given up on God. I mean, really? I guess He’s out there, but it’s not like He needs me for anything. I can’t be bothered anymore. It’s not like I could have a relationship with Him anyway with how my thoughts are at the moment.”
These were probably words that I, too, had muttered in my adolescent years.

For all Christians, there are times where you struggle with your belief and question with its authenticity. These questions create a lot of doubt in your faith and some end up giving up.

Like Lauren, everything that you thought you knew starts hitting back at you. And when you’re feeling like a complete mess, and the world is too, the natural response is, “Right. God clearly doesn’t care about the world. He’s not going to care about me. Why then should I care too?”

Lies and doubt creep into our hearts and look to destroy the relationship we have with Jesus, our Lord.
C.S. Lewis wrote in his book The Problem of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

That doesn’t mean God throws the suffering on to us as a punishment because we’re not listening to him. It means that God is present in the midst of suffering. He uses our difficult situations to make Himself more present to the world.

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through,
as if something strange were happening to you.
Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering,
so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory
when it is revealed to all the world.
1 Peter 4:12-13

Filed under Writing and tagged with God's Protection, Suffering.