Declaration of Dependence, part 2 -Falling Into the Ground

Pain.

I’ve never gone looking for it and I’ve never seen it as an enjoyable thing in and of itself. I think we all can agree that this one four-letter word in our lifetimes -however short or long they have been thus far- has stirred up more doubts and questions about God than most other topics in the world.

I have lived most of my life viewing pain as an enemy. Perhaps you have too. We weigh our decisions, the goals in our lives, the friends we will have, even whether or not we will come close to God by how much pain –emotional or physical- each choice will cost us.

The majority of the world we live in has structured their lives around comfort and ease. Pain is not even an option. Nor is it a topic we really want to talk about. Not unless there is a way to avoid it.

But today, I am going to talk about it. Maybe knowing this, you will close your webpage and read no further. That’s ok. This topic is not for the faint of heart. But if you are willing, God can give you grace to face it head on as He has been doing for me of late.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone: but if it dies, it produces much grain...” (John 12:24)

This verse has been a starting point for pain in my life. I’ll tell you why. I want to be fruitful. In many ways, I think you do too, maybe without even knowing it.

You’ll understand in a moment. Every single person in the world is after the same things as I am. Love, happiness, peace, harmony in relationships, the ability to make good choices, etc. We all have our places that we are looking to for these things, too. Individuals seek it in everything from entertainment, intimacy in relationships, worldly pleasure, serving and helping others, doing what pleases them in the moment, being religious, etc. On a way larger scale, nations try to create these things by setting up laws that have to do with their ideas of what would promote them

But the reality is, none of these things come from this world or from human resources. No, not even from our hearts. We can conjure up a temporary guise of love, happiness, or peace, but it only lasts so long before another tripwire is crossed and our whole world explodes yet again.

The reality is, love, joy, peace, etc. are from another realm entirely. They do not come from this earth, nor can it be grown in earthly soil. It is heavenly, and it is spiritual.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23) Since these are the fruit of the Spirit, it literally means they are HIS fruit, not ours, planted in a totally heavenly heart God places in us the day we are saved. (Ezekiel 36:26)

So…. As I said before, I desire fruitfulness, but I am beginning to realize it doesn’t come from me. And since it doesn’t come from me, nor is it grown by me, I need to know how to have it. I think you do too.

I go to Jesus and I ask, “How, Lord? How is fruitfulness possible in my life?”

He answers, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies…” He pauses.

“Falling into the ground and dying sounds painful,” I think to myself, “I don’t like pain.” I’m tempted to ask Jesus if there is another way, but He finishes his sentence.

“Unless it falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.”

My heart drops. “That’s the only way? Ugh. Is it worth it?” But the words, “it remains alone” echo in my mind. “I don’t want to be alone.” I picture myself at the end of my life before the throne of Jesus Christ with no fruit in my hands, having tried to live my whole life without pain, seeking for the very things pain was trying to give me. No. I don’t want that. But I still wonder… “Is it worth the pain, Jesus?”

He looks at me, then looks at the cross He hung on. Images flood my mind of Him writhing in pain there. Death was not comfortable for Him, either. He then says to me, “But if it dies, it produces much fruit.” He turns His eyes back to me and looks me in the eye with a look of utter confidence. 

“Yes, Sandie, pain is worth it.”

I wonder if you are wrestling as much as I have over this concept. Jesus is the life He is calling us to, but for Him to live and move freely in our lives and for His Spirit to produce much fruit in us, the flesh must be handed over to death as often as is necessary. Which is painful in every sense of the word. My flesh hates it.

You might be thinking, “well Sandie, why even be a Christian if it involves so much pain?” And my question to you is, “why not?” You see, if Jesus is the only place where I get the real thing, I don’t want to go anywhere else. 

Once you taste supernatural love, joy, and peace coming from the throne of heaven flowing into this terrestrial realm with so much force and awesome wonder that you know there is nothing else like it, you simply can’t go anywhere else. 

The real thing is the only thing, even if the cost to go deeper into it is much pain.

For many of you, it’s difficult to understand what I’m talking about because pain to you is an enemy.

Can I let you in on a secret? Recently, Christ introduced pain to me as a friend.

There are two reasons pain is a friend and not an enemy in the Christian life...

     1. Christ lives in us, and wants us to know Him in every sense of the word.

He wants us to understand His suffering. He wants us to experience His power. He wants us to encounter His grace. He wants us to be overwhelmed with His love and joy, and guarded by His peace. Often the only megaphone that makes His invitation to come near loud enough for us to hear is pain.

In the Old Testament, Job’s pain was what revealed to him the very fact that he did not know God intimately, but in the end, he found out who God was, and learned of His infinite power and ability to restore.

Paul understood this when he asked God three times to remove his “thorn in the flesh” and God’s response was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

Pain is a doorway deeper into God’s heart. Pain can guide you into the safety of God’s presence and cause you to know Him as your Refuge in ways nothing else can.

2. Christ wants to make Himself known through you

Paul puts it this way: “…God… has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair: persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed- always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body…. So then death is working in us, but life in you.” (2 Corinthians 4: 6-12)

In other words, our lives are but a shell carrying the life of Christ Himself everywhere we go. 

Pain cracks open that shell so HE can be seen. When death works in us, God’s life is allowed to work in others. That’s pretty incredible!

One more thought. I realize many Christians have had pain, but neither of these two things happened for them. Maybe that’s you. It has been me at times.

The key that unlocks Christ being known by you and through you is very simple. Surrender. Next to pain, surrender is another word we dislike. It means not my will, but His.

With pain, God offers grace that is capable of lifting you above your circumstances, grace that is capable of causing great fruitfulness in you, but we often miss His grace because we aren’t looking for it or expecting it. Instead, we are looking for a way out, clinging to our idea of what our lives should look like.

Realize this: pain is God’s invitation to know Him deeper than you’ve ever known Him before and to make Himself more visible through you. But in order to receive it, you have to put down (AKA surrender) your ideas of what your life should look like so you can find out His.

This is the death that Christ is talking about that leads to fruitfulness. This is what unlocks His life in us producing love, joy, peace, and much, much more fruit.

May Christ change our vision so we can see every situation as an opportunity to know Him more, even the painful ones...

-That's all for today. :)

P.S. to read part 1, click here.