Being Thankful for Pain By W. Tullian Tchividjian

We live in a country that has convinced us that the pursuit of happiness and comfort is our "inalienable right." Therefore, when our comforts, conveniences, and cushions are threatened, we cry "foul." This has seriously affected our understanding of what it means to give thanks and the types of things we are to be thankful for. The greatest people in history have been just as thankful for their pains as they have been for their pleasures. They have given gratitude for their desperations as much as their deliverances; their grief as much as their glory.

The 19th century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, "Health is a gift from God, but sickness is a gift greater still." Throughout his time in this world, Spurgeon suffered with various physical ailments that eventually took his life prematurely. He longed to be well but he recognized the supreme value of being sick and he thanked God for it. It was his pain that caused him to desperately draw near to God. And it was his nearness to God that gave him joy till his final breath. Similarly, David Brainerd was a young missionary to American Indians who died in 1747 at 29 years old from tuberculosis. Toward the end of his struggle, he was on his deathbed coughing up blood and coming in and out of consciousness saying out loud, "Oh for Holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh, this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God." The Puritans used to say that this life was the gymnasium, the dressing room, for the life to come and if suffering here and now better prepared them for the next world then it was welcomed. To be thankful for our comforts only is to make an idol of this life. "God-sent afflictions", says Maurice Roberts, "have a health-giving effect upon the soul" because they are the medicine used to purge the soul of self-centeredness and this world's vanities. Pain, in other words, sharpens us, matures us, and gives us clear "eye-sight." Pain transforms us like nothing else can. It turns us into "solid" people. Roberts continues, "Those who have been in the crucible have lost more of their scum." All of this should cause us to be deeply thankful.

It has been said that restlessness (pain) is the second best thing because it leads us to the Best Thing (God). For, it is only when we come to the end of ourselves that we come to the beginning of God. And it is only when we come to the beginning of God that we come to the beginning of life. The paradox of Christianity is, in the words of Jesus, that if you want to find your life, you must lose it (Matthew 10:39). In the world's economy, life precedes death; In God's economy, death precedes life. The cross always precedes the crown; desperation always precedes deliverance. The good news, however, the thing that should cause us to be both supremely thankful and hopeful, is this: when we lose one home, we secure another. Thank God!