The Problem of Pain

I am not sure how to start this, but I want to talk about pain. We all have it in some form or another. Everyone goes through things, and some of us come out on the other side. The other side is the side of faith. The question is how do you get there?

I want to confess that I have had an awful week. I am tired. I am grumpy. I am angry that things are not going my way. You see, I have this plan. It's a plan to just not be here. it's a plan to quit life as it is. Just disappear.  I think life would be better in Canada. At least I imagine it is.

So what do you do when you are angry? If you are C.S. Lewis, apparently you just keep caring for people. 

Let's talk about C.S. Lewis and the amount of loss he suffered from. He lost his mother at the age of nine and was sent off to boarding school. He didn't fit in very well, and he asked his father if he could have a private tutor. His father, overwhelmed with grief for his wife, granted his request. His father was distraught and bereaved, but he did manage to grant that request. In addition to this, C.S. Lewis experienced WWI. 

He wrestled with these experiences and become a Christian in his early thirties. That seems like a lot of loss to me. His mother gone, a distant father, boarding school, and a war. Could you manage?

Well, he did. He and a friend experienced WWI together. Paddy was what they called him and they were very close. They were so close that they had an agreement. If one of them died, the other would take care of his family. Paddy died during the war and that's how C.S. Lewis ended up taking care of Paddy's mother, Mrs. Moore. 

Mrs. Moore moved in with him. Apparently, she was quite demanding. She kept him on his toes. 

Add to this his brother. His brother had a problem with Mrs. Moore and with drink. He would leave, go some place, and drink himself silly. The nuns apparently dried him out and would send him back. C.S. Lewis would take care of him.

Keep in mind he married his American wife in his fifties. He was happy for a very short time. And then he watched her die of cancer. (Have you watched Shadowlands?) And then he took in her two stepsons.

This amazing man was able to take care of all these people! How in the world was he able to do all of this?

I suppose the writing helped. He wrote The Problem of Pain as a response to watching the love of his life die. He had come out of his tunnel and came out stronger on the other side. He wrote of Pam in The Great Divorce. Pam was the woman eaten up by the loss of her son. I'm sure he based that in Mrs. Moore. 

What was he trying to show us? Why all the writing?

He wanted people to go from doubt to faith. He wanted people to make the right choice. He wanted God to lead us all. 

So, when you are you are feeling down in the dumps, remember C.S. Lewis. We are called to love people. It doesn't matter how long. 

He often said we need to go down to go up. What did he mean by that? You have to remember that you are going to die eventually. While you are there you can remember that you are not made for this world. You are made for another world. 

If you feel like your plans are not going to work out, you can take some solace in the fact that God's way is probably better. We need to abandon that false hope. We cannot create our own happiness. Only God can create our happiness and joy. We need to built our hope on something better. It's hope in Christ.