I have watch co-workers, church members, family members, and neighbors go through great amounts of pain. I have seen illness, poverty, ignorance, selfishness, and greed cause pain. I have seen the results of accidents, natural disasters and "acts of God", bad decisions, war, and laziness cause great amounts of pain. The pain of life impacts the innocent and the guilty, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak; it does not discriminate.
As a Christian, I have my own theodicy, my own understanding, view, and understanding of how and why there is such pain and suffering in life - why God can still exists and be a loving and fully aware being who has the power to supernaturally intervene and yet does not stop the avalanche and torrent of mishaps and afflictions that cause both minor and major pain.
Pain generally affects us on two levels: the physical or the relational. The physical is obvious, but the relational causes the most damage. How many marriages have I seen fall apart - and I am confident that no one ever got married wishing for the pain of marital strife, fighting, arguments, and divorce. How may parents and children have strained and damaged relationships because of value differences, beliefs, rebellion, or non-traditional life-styles chosen by one or the other? How many friendships - deep friendships, are spoiled by a misunderstanding, a disappointment, an unmet or unachiavable or inappropriate expectation, or a real error, mistake, or betrayal? What happens when a parents basic responsibility of raising a child in a loving, safe, and nurturing environment is interrupted by death, ignorance, abuse, blatant irresponsibility, neglect, drug use/addiction, alcohol uses/addiction, and the like? The psyche of most children raised in such environments are scared such that they are negatively impacted their entire life! What a deal - ten to fifteen years of a broken and abusive upbringing leads to fifty or sixty additional years of a messed up life!
I have to go, but come back later and I will continue.... I have some thoughts on how to frame the inevitable pain we experience in life, and I am definitely curious about how others cope. I'm frustrated right now because I'm watching another family go through crisis and pain - I KNOW it is unnecessary but, as life would have it, no one person can really influence another to deal with pain in a healthy way - they must ultimately figure it out in their own minds and hearts, even if they THINK the influence was external, the truth is that an individual must accept and act on a coping mechanism that has become internalized.
