If we’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that there are very few things every single human being on this planet share in common. Sure, we are all anatomically human beings and certain similarities come with that fact. Recently though, I’ve become more and more aware of one thing where we as humans all have some common ground; pain. Not physical (though that too), but emotional, soulful pain. No matter who you are, you’ve experienced this type of heart-pang at some point in your life. The very presence (not type or quantity) of this heartache is a fact of life shared across the globe. This isn’t breaking news.

No person is a stranger to the pain of sickness, death, rejection, or really anything that just hurts deep down, even when you don’t get why. Pain slips in like a needle, but certainly doesn’t leave as easily as it enters. There are countless songs describing the various types of pain. Some of the greatest friendships you’ll ever have are formed when both of you empathize with each other’s pain. When we meet or hear the story of someone who has been through a similar circumstance and successfully moved on, we are inspired. Pain may be able to be well articulated, but sometimes can only be described as an assortment of discomfort. Much like how no two humans are the exact same, no pains are exactly the same. Everyone’s got theirs, and it’s unique to them.

We ask “why?” and go on a life-long hunt looking for the answer. Our personal encounters with pain motivate us to question why the world is the way it is. The numbing sensation of pain can seem so pointless, so destructive. Yet it is often in these moments where we learn about who we really are, and what we really need.

The mystery that surrounds the pain in our lives is there for good reason. Pain was never meant to be present, just like the things that cause it. The book of Genesis in the Bible states that God made the heavens and the earth and saw that it was good, very good. Perfect, in fact. Suffering was never meant to have a place in God’s creation. However, evil came into the world when Adam and Eve, the first created beings, disobeyed God’s only command which was to not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Pain flooded in immediately as Adam and Eve felt the shame of their sin right away and covered themselves with leaves. The two were previously completely oblivious to the fact that they were naked; they had felt no shame. It didn’t take them long to become well acquainted with sin and its effects, as their first born son Cain killed their second born Abel out of jealousy.

Most of us just chug through life with little understanding of the burdens we carry, but knowing that we don’t want them to weigh us down. Death is a good example of this. If someone who just lost a loved one were to describe death, they would probably be at a loss for words. The abrupt end of life is a simple, yet profoundly confusing reality. One second, your loved one is present and the next, they are gone forever. The agony that accompanies death shows that our hearts don’t really get it, nor were they meant to.

Perhaps the belief that the Bible is true makes you cringe. If you’ve read up until this point, I hope you would at least hear me out till the end. Maybe you’ve been deeply hurt by those who identify as Christian or just feel like you’d be performing intellectual suicide if you were to believe in what the Bible says. To this I ask several questions; how do you make sense of the pain in this world? Why do certain things cause us heartache? Does what the Bible says about pain make sense with what we can observe? Why or why not? As the Bible states, pain was never meant to be part of the picture. Therefore, if it was never meant to be part of the picture, then it would make sense with the fact that we cannot fully understand it. This, at the very least, supports what the Bible says.

Many question the presence of God in their life because of their suffering, or even the existence of the Biblical God because of evil in the world. However, these views aren’t seeing the whole picture according to the Bible. Those questions assume that God owes us something to begin with. We conveniently forget that mankind rejected God! Things weren’t always this way. To maintain his holiness, God gave man the ability to choose. Man turned around and used that ability to reject the God that created him. In an instant, the perfect dwelling place God created changed. Sin flooded into the world along with the pain and suffering that accompanies it. With no way to amend this situation on our own, God acted.

Our sins demanded a payment, one that none of us are fit to give. But God made a way in which we could return to him after this spiritually fatal disobedience. There was one who had the ability to propitiate or fully satisfy the price to be paid for our sin, and he did just that. God decided to come down in the form of a man, and pay for the things we have done against him for us so that anyone who accepts this gift, of Jesus Christ, would no longer have to live amidst constant pain and suffering any longer but eternally with him as he had intended all along.

Your pain is not forgotten or ignored by God, but used by him. How?

This pain that resides in the heart of every man and woman, shows us what we really need. We all long for something but aren’t exactly sure what it is. So we search and navigate towards the things that society tells us we want. Yet when we get them, the same thirst intensifies. These things that can bring happiness for a time can leave deep scars. Unfulfillment has our souls groaning daily. Rejection and disappointment split hearts. Individuals are disregarded, deemed not worthy of time. These are real experiences, which real people feel. And each time, it points to the imperfection of this world and the global suffering taking place. So what is that something that we desperately long for and need?

We need someone who will never leave us and who doesn’t change with time. We need love that is set like concrete, steady and unchanging. A true love that is not based on feelings, but a perfectly self-less choice. We need to be gently yet firmly corrected and guided. We need rest from the weariness of this world. Most importantly though, we need forgiveness for sin, and to be restored to the God who made us! None of the other needs are accomplished without this occurring. The only one that checks off all these boxes is none other than Jesus Christ. The one God himself sent to do so.

You may be in a time of aching pain right now. The difficulties of life are weighing you down and (rightly so) you don’t know anyone who really understands what you’re going through. Perhaps the world just continues to disappoint and confuse you. Maybe you’ve come to the realization that you have needs that no person, place or thing on this planet can meet.

May I invite you to ask the God who never intended you to experience that pain into your heart? Or to consider doing so? To accept his gift of Jesus, paying for your sin, in turn meeting all your needs and changing your eternity? Your pain, will not be hopeless anymore. God promises that.

Now things won’t be perfect and you will still have troubles. However, you can have courage and walk through those struggles knowing who Jesus is and what he has done for you! You will receive the promises of God which never fail. The answer for the pains you have experienced, are experiencing and will experience may not be made known to you now, but the very thing you need the most will be yours. A relationship with God, only available through faith in Jesus Christ.

The following scripture was referenced throughout this blog. Please check these wonderful truths out for yourself!

Genesis 1:31 – Creation was perfect

Genesis 3 – Adam and Eve disobey God

Genesis 4:8 – Cain Kills Abel

Ephesians 1:7-9 – Where the forgiveness we need comes from

Ephesians 2:8 – Grace is not earned, but given

Romans 8:28 – No pain is in vain with God

Philippians 2:6-11 – What was Jesus like?

1 Peter 1: 3-5 – An indestructible hope

1 Thessalonians 4:13 – Hope amidst pain