tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35035203.post798261241453081190..comments2023-11-03T05:43:21.258-07:00Comments on Tony's2Cents: Pin Head? Piercings? NOPE, it's...AcupunctureTony's 2 Centshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14285095161415312225noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35035203.post-82265899865829088762007-12-20T13:32:00.000-08:002007-12-20T13:32:00.000-08:00I am sorry for your struggle and encouraged by you...I am sorry for your struggle and encouraged by your faith. Pain + God, it seems, is the most ancient of spiritual anomalies. And ‘is God with us in our pain’ is perhaps the first in a lengthy list of accompanying questions. <BR/><BR/>I wonder even deeper about this question of whether pain sides with a certain moral absolute – more blatantly – is pain always bad (e.g. a response to sin) or is it sometimes good? Some say pain is bad in that it is always a response to sin and good only because it spurns us towards righteousness. <BR/><BR/>But I’m not sure I buy that. That Job exists in our canon is maybe the best possible repellant for such an assertion. A righteous man falling fate to unthinkable pain and loss, questioning God’s very intentions, dodging dodgy advice and ultimately divinely embraced (Job 42:9). Something there doesn’t match up with a penal approach to pain. And maybe God’s line of questioning – “where were you when…” – is written to illustrate how much of life he is actually a part of. <BR/><BR/>Is it sensible to think that all the nuance of creation, our very surroundings, is at the core of God’s interest? Perhaps. The implication in any case is that of Luke’s gospel: if God cares for the grass of the field how much more is he concerned with you and me; and how much more present (Luke 12:28). <BR/><BR/>I consistently beg for God’s relief, and inevitably end up thinking about those to whom my plight is preferable. My canned and instinctive response: “why me?! why not them!” is valid but dissolvable when I realize that I am the “why not them!” for millions of other people. And so maybe this pain is God’s way of connecting us, putting the body of Christ back together again. I see your pain, Tony, and am instantly thankful (that I am not in your shoes) and at the same time wanting to help, moved to pray. And so we are connected in a way that would otherwise be mute. And I don’t know as to the theological viability of such musings but it compels the conversation. Maybe that’s the most important thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com