A day of agony

This morning when I awoke I was unable to move without causing myself extreme and agonising pain. It took me almost two hours to get out of bed this morning but only after I had taken fistfuls of pain killers an a fair bit of assistance from my brother. I am no stranger to pain having broken a number of bones and had plenty of injuries of various kinds in the past, amongst my friends I am known to be extremely injury prone. But today is quite possibly the most pain I have ever been in.

I am not writing this to complain about the pain or to seek sympathy, I am writing today about what the pain has made me think about. Bearing this pain today has been very difficult for me, I would love to say I have born it with good grace but I have spent the day complaining about it to my family and making sure everyone around me is aware of my pain.

In reality though the pain I have had today is really not all that bad, well for me it is, but our Lord had to deal with so much more than a sore neck. When he allowed himself to be taken and flogged, then crucified the pain he experienced would have been many many times greater than what I have had today. However this pain has made me consider what it is that Jesus went through for me, how much he suffered so that I could be forgiven and saved from the wrath of God.

It might sound strange but I am actually glad for the pain I have been in today. I am glad that through the pain I have been made to think about Jesus and his suffering. I don't pretend to think that this pain is anywhere near comparable to the suffering He went through or that by suffering this way I can understand anything about His suffering. But by the small amount of suffering I have been through I have come to appreciate how much I must mean to Him that he would go through so much for me. I mentioned to one of my friends over the weekend that I hope that in the future I can always look at the situation I am in and think what is God trying to teach me through this. I hope that I have learned the lesson that comes with this pain and will continue to learn what I need to when I need to. With a bit of luck the pain will end soon, but as long as it lasts I pray that I can handle it with better grace than I have so far.