Love’s Gift Through Pain
Love cannot exist without pain. ~The Anchoress
The Anchoress wrote a post that so deeply moved me and it spurred me on to write on this topic myself.
This time of the year, one cannot help but reflect again on the most profound love-gift that has ever been given to man-kind. It is a gift, so precious, so valuable and so indescribable, that all there is left to do is to grasp it firmly into our bosom and try to comprehend, on some level – with our finite minds, the mystery which it holds.
Never before has there been one who descended from heaven and gave himself for man-kind. Only Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, was able to do that because He was commissioned by God, by Himself, to pierce through darkness and enter this linear world of ours. A world, so limited in its understanding, so ignorant of truth, and so sinful of its own making.
He stood among us, this God, this Holy God, and through His son, Jesus Christ, He showed us His heart. With a passion so fierce, He did His work. All that He did was driven by only one prevailing power and that power is Love.
Jesus the Christ displayed compassion, kindness and mercy as no one ever could. There were no formulas to go by. There were no rules to remember. Love operates from the heart and it is reckless in its giving. Love was the only means in which to bring humanity into a life of meaning, of purpose, and of abundance.
God withheld nothing from us!
He knew before He descended from heaven, the pain that He would endure….and conquer. He knew what we, with our finite human mind , could never comprehend. Thus, He spoke in the only language that we could understand. Pain
Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” as He hung suspended between heaven and earth, because of the raw, primitive emotions of hate and envy that men everywhere are capable of at their worst. (Luke 23:34)
His love penetrated though the darkest of dark. All the universe became silent, if even just for a moment, to witness Love in its purest form. To understand once and for all that healing of our broken humanity comes only through the redeeming power of Love.
Love cannot exist without pain.
Those who embrace this understanding, will lay aside formulas and rules to go by. They will, through their own devotion and love for God, reach out to humanity recklessly and unconditionally…with a passionate desire to love. It is in this abandonment to love that transformations will take place right before their eyes. Salvation and healing will be the natural by-product as love pierces through the heart and heals. Love itself can and will heal and make whole the body, mind and spirit.
As we embrace each other with this understanding, let us pray that God will raise up a people in this hour, who know how to love. All of creation groans and travails for such a people to arise. (Rom.8) It is only as we abide in Him, that this will become a possibility. God IS Love and in this Love, Light is manifested. As this pure Light of love is manifested, Truth will stand on its own. Thus, all ignorance and darkness will be no more. (I John 1:5)
It is at this juncture that all tears will be wiped away and pain will no longer have a place in the hearts of men.
Let us never fear to step out to love and to be love. This must be done intelligently, compassionately, and genuinely. Pain exists everywhere without love…but love can never exist without pain…until that final moment of complete understanding, complete enlightenment. This holy sacrifice was given once and for all. The pain of ignorance was beyond human comprehension. It was agony at its worst. Mankind has, at last, been freed from a life of misery and futility. We have been freed into a life of certainty – a life of communion with our Creator.
Yes, indeed, we have been freed into a life without pain – if we can truly comprehend and accept this truth.
Please, do not take it that far. For it is true that our Heavenly Father chose to use pain to help us to naturally understand the glory of His love; but to say that “love cannot possibly exist without pain” is to miss the point.
Besides: there is not supposed to be any pain in His Kingdom of Heaven, right??? Therefore: does that mean that there will not be any love there, as well???
Comment by FishHawk — February 29, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
Viola,
This is very interesting. I think Jesus’ set himself on the road of love and stayed on it. Perhaps because he kept his eyes on love and never wavered, he succeeded.
I have thought long about the lines from the Gospel of John in which Jesus tells his friends, “Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends….” and continues by saying, “You are my friends….” We can do it–or can we?
Comment by SandyCarlson — February 29, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
FishHawk, thank you for your comment and your opinion. I always value other’s opinion. Speaking from a human level now, each time we love…there is pain involved. We love our children, yet there is tremendous pain involved in raising them and having to change ourselves in order to parent properly. When we fall in love, we experience so much pain. When we love a friend, we experience their pain and the pain of being loyal…even when it hurts. There is no doubt that the love God gave…involved a tremendous amount of pain. One day though, I believe there will be complete enlightenment that pain will no longer be an issue. I have now added that to my post as I think your observation brought some balance to what I wanted to say. Thank you!
Sandy, yes it is interesting and certainly worth pondering. There will be a generation…I do believe that, but, it requires a lot of “letting go” of believe systems that are archaic and simply don’t work. That can be painful… until we finally realize that the way to understanding and truth is actually all around us. I would like to be a part of that realization…and I pray for it often.
Comment by Viola Jaynes — February 29, 2008 @ 9:36 pm
Yes, that last part does help. Thanks for being so gracious.
Comment by FishHawk — February 29, 2008 @ 10:02 pm
I have been thinking about this post today, Viola. It reminded me of the words of a pastor who once served as the US Chaplain in the former Soviet Union. Something along the lines that we really can’t know what we’re about as faithful people until we are oppressed in some way. His wife asked what that meant to the rest of us, who had not ever been oppressed. What he meant was that times of crisis, and especially extreme crisis, cause us to call on our faith in real and sometimes graphic and dramatic ways. Thinking of your words, I think they are in line with his. It is nice to go away, think, come back, and read anew.
Comment by SandyCarlson — March 2, 2008 @ 2:30 am
Thank you Sandy! I think as long as we do not have a “full understanding” and “comprehension” of the truth, we will experience pain. Jesus came to take away that ignorance for us and now it is up to us how badly we really want it. Pain seems to be the language humans understand. I wish it was not so!
Thank you for your continued support and encouragement. You have been a real blessing to me!!!
Comment by Viola Jaynes — March 2, 2008 @ 4:37 am
[...] Jaynes shares Love’s Gift through Pain from Spiritual Things [...]
Pingback by The Seventh Day: Tenth Edition | On the Horizon — March 2, 2008 @ 7:19 pm
Thanks so much for contributing this post to The Seventh Day: Tenth Edition blog carnival at On the Horizon! Stop by and check out the other excellent submissions!
As always, your writing leaves me in awe. It is inspiring, thought-provoking and profound. Like Sandy, I find that I walk away from the computer, but your words remain with me long after I read them.
I’ve always learned a lot from the conversation taking place here among your readers!
Blessings to all of you!
HS
Comment by Hopeful Spirit — March 2, 2008 @ 7:23 pm