When Avoiding Pain Gets You Killed By a Comet

Suggested Reading: Numbers 14:11-23

At the end of the movie, Deep Impact, as a massive comet is on a collision course for Earth, one family is stuck in traffic, trying to flee a city where the comet's impact will be felt most deeply. The family had hoped to find refuge in an underground bunker by allowing their teenage daughter to marry her boyfriend who already had a spot in the fallout shelter, but that plan didn't work.  Finally, the teenage husband is able to return for his new wife and finds the family by weaving in and out of traffic on a dirt-bike.  The girl's parents immediately put their teenager and her infant sister on the bike and tell her to leave. She refuses to go. She doesn't want to leave her family behind. They love her, but in order to save her, they insist that she leave, knowing she will be hurt by the loss of her family but hoping she will survive the coming disaster. They intentionally cause her pain, not because they hate her, but because they love her.

Too many people have fallen under the assumption that loving somebody means you never do anything that will cause that person pain. These people would be wrong. Numbers 14:18 tells us, The Lord is slow to anger and rich in faithful love, forgiving wrongdoing and rebellion. But He will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ wrongdoing on the children to the third and fourth generation (HCSB). Upon first looking at this verse, one can see a possible contradiction within it: God is forgiving but doesn't leave the guilty unpunished? Doesn't forgiving mean that you don't punish someone? Absolutely not.

As a father, there are times my children do things that are wrong, things for which I can forgive them. But as a father, I also love them enough that I want to teach them not to make the same mistakes again. So, even though I have forgiven them for what they have done wrong, I still discipline them, not because I am angry with them or because I hate them but specifically because I love them and I want them to learn. Forgiveness doesn't mean consequences shouldn't occur and love doesn't mean that you avoid causing pain at all costs. Some lessons can only be learned through pain and sometimes love means allowing people to face painful consequences so that they will learn. Sometimes the only way to save someone involves allowing something painful to occur. You don't like the pain, but you accept it because it will eventually bring about something good.

Some of us are going through some painful circumstances and wondering if God really loves us because of the pain we are experiencing. I would like to encourage you with a brief paraphrase of Romans 8:38-39: there is no amount of pain you can endure  that will separate you from the love of God. Pain is never pleasant, but it sometimes accompanies things that are necessary and good. If you are struggling with how to respond to someone, don't base your decisions on whether or not someone will be hurt but on what is best for them. Don't ever inflict unnecessary pain, but don't let the possibility of pain keep you from doing what needs to be done. 

Pain is a necessary part of life. Don't avoid it. Keep it in the proper perspective.

Mutants, Servants and Life-Style Choices

Suggested Reading: Genesis 24:1-15 (or read the whole story here)

A few years ago the SYFY channel ran a show called ALPHAS. The show was essentially a toned down version of X-Men, focused on people with advanced mutations that give them special abilities. One of these Alphas was a woman named Kat whose ability enabled her to learn any skill by watching it once. She could watch it on tv or witness it live in person but if she saw it just once, she could learn and reproduce it.

While there are people who have very good memories and learning skills, in reality, all of us learn by watching other people. In the book of Genesis, we are given a very illustrative example of someone learning by watching. One of Abraham's trusted servants, an older gentlemen who had watched Abraham's relationship with God play out through the years, was sent on a quest to find a wife for Abraham's son Isaac. When the servant arrived at the place where Abraham had instructed, he stopped and prayed. “O  Lord, God of my master, Abraham, please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham. See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. This is my request. I will ask one of them, ‘Please give me a drink from your jug. ’ If she says, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too! ’—let her be the one you have selected as Isaac’s wife. This is how I will know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.” (Genesis 24:12-14, NLT).

Now, several things stand out about the servant's prayer. For one, most eastern peoples of the day believed that gods were stationary, territorial beings who only had power within a very specific and limited area. Second, they tended to believe that the gods could control certain things, like the weather or fertility or a roll of the dice, but they didn't tend to believe the gods could control people's actions. But here was this servant, hundreds of miles from where the Lord was normally worshiped, asking him to control both fate and people by bringing the girl the Lord had chosen at just the right time to do exactly the right thing. Where did he learn that? Most likely from watching Abraham's  relationship with God.

People watch us all the time, whether we realize it or not, and they are learning about our God from us. What do we show them? Do we show them a God who is loving and patient, who is in control of the future? Or do we show them a god who is so pathetic and weak that we have to worry, cheat and plot to move forward in life?  Do we show them a God who inspires integrity in His people or a god who doesn't mind Christian symbols plastered on the back of a car going 15 over the speed-limit? Do we show them a God who cares about the insignificant and the poor or a god who only cares about those powerful enough to attract attention to themselves? Maybe, we show them a god who plays favorites rather a God who sent his Son so that no one would perish.

What are you showing people with your life? Most people will only learn what they see in you.