Problem of Pain

This chapter in Lewis' book, Problem of Pain was about the physical pains that we have in this life and how we deal with them. He classifies pain into two parts, the first of these is painful sensation in the nerves, the second is unpleasant experience. Lewis focuses on the second part, unpleasant experience. Everyone experiences pain at some point in their lives whether it is physical pain, such as breaking an arm or some other body part, or whether it is mental pain of losing a loved one.

Sometimes it is very difficult for us to understand why God sends us trials in this life, especially the very hard ones. It takes a great deal of time to try to understand that it is for the best and that the event itself has a purpose. We must always remember that God is in control and that this life is a life of suffering. We must look at the bigger picture which has a greater end which is in heaven.

Lewis brings up an example of how he reluctantly attempts to bring himself into the frame that he should be in at all times, and then he reminds himself that his only real treasure in this life is in Jesus Christ. He states "I remind myself that these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good was only in another world, and my only true treasure is Christ."

We talked in class about how it is easy to forget about God when things are going great in our lives, so we only come to Him when we are facing trials. An example of this is 9/11 when all Americans stopped their normal lives and turned to God in prayer, but then months later seemed to forget about God and returned to their normal lives again. Even though this was not the case of everyone we are defiantly guilty of living this type of lifestyle. We must always be consciously focused on our goal which is in heaven.

We have a great story in the scriptures of Job suffering all of his hardships, having everything taken away from him and yet he still remained focused on heaven. As Romans 12:12 says, "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer."