September 27, 2006

[Rev. Doc]

The Pain Of Life

"For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God."
I Peter 2:19

An aging teacher wanted to teach his student an important factor of living life, and so, one morning, sent him for some salt. When the student returned, the teacher instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it.

"How does it taste?" the teacher asked.

"Bitter," spit the student.

The teacher chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake, and once the student swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the teacher asked, "How does it taste?"

"Fresh," remarked the student.

"Do you taste the salt?" asked the teacher.

"No," said the young man.

At this, the teacher sat beside this serious young man who so reminded him of himself and took his hands, offering, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Don't be a glass. Become a lake."

Prayer: Ask God to help face pain without answering it with bitterness.

"Pain is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads."
~C.S. Lewis