Four days ago I had a migraine. It was the first migraine I have ever had (and I hope, last), and extremely profound. There is something about excruciating pain which can cause a person to think deeply and soberly about life as a whole.
My first realization was this: depth, in all facets of life, usually comes through pain. Depth of mind frequently comes when the daggers take their deepest course. So-called "deathbed converts" are given a bad name, being portrayed as desperately grasping straws with their final throws of life. It seems wise to consider, however, that after a life of relative ease, maybe these souls are being deepened in thought in a way they never had to before. The sick, aged, and dying are not the shallowest of the human race by any stretch of the imagination.
This depth, is very likely the precise reason why the Fall was allowed to be part of the history of mankind. Without our peoples' discombobulation, we never could have been reconfigured are something more beautiful, which knows its Savior all the more. Similarly:
The second realization was this: incomprehensible things are outside of the realm of our imagination. This seems obvious at first glance, but at the very least, it has never been obvious to me. Due to a certain illness, I have faced an incredible amount of pain over the course of my life. However, the migraine I experienced was more painful than any other pain in my life without comparison. In many ways, a heightened form of the stab of brain-freeze, only for a period of around three-and-a-half hours instead of three-and-a-half seconds. A sickening, incapacitating pain which caused my teeth to chatter, arms to shake, and knees to (literally) knock together.
While the migraine was happening, I realized something significant: my imagination can barely carry me outside of the realm of my experience. If the proverbial "scale of pain" ranges from 1-10, the greatest pain I had experienced before my migraine was perhaps a 5. Anything beyond that was incomprehensible to me. When watching "Master and Commander," while the little boy's arm is cut off with a saw, the greatest pain I could connect with that in my mind was a 5, when perhaps the pain itself was a 9. I could understand it, but only to the extent that a person knows the look of the Sun by the shadows--it is beyond his experience. Now that I have had my migraine however, when I watch "Master and Commander" again, I will be able to associate my 7 with the little boy's 9, and be able to comprehend that terrible scene in a much better light.
The significance of this principle, is that many things, good or bad, are not merely "more than we understand," but entirely outside of our realm of understanding. The Christian is altogether incapable of knowing the joys of heaven, the love of God, or the pain of Hell. These things are completely beyond our grasp. So, when we preach to those who do not know the living God, it is our absolute lack of understanding which should drive us. We know what will happen to them, but we cannot comprehend it. Just the same, we should be pushed forward to serve Yahweh, not based on the 4 of joy we comprehend, but on the understanding that there exists a 10 which we have never grasped. When we compare our present sufferings with the joy we have experienced in this life, it is toss-up whether or not it is worthwhile to bear the burden of the cross. But, when we remember that the joys to come, when we see Him face to face, are indescribably greater than the greatest things we have experienced, we will have the strength to continue.
My first realization was this: depth, in all facets of life, usually comes through pain. Depth of mind frequently comes when the daggers take their deepest course. So-called "deathbed converts" are given a bad name, being portrayed as desperately grasping straws with their final throws of life. It seems wise to consider, however, that after a life of relative ease, maybe these souls are being deepened in thought in a way they never had to before. The sick, aged, and dying are not the shallowest of the human race by any stretch of the imagination.
This depth, is very likely the precise reason why the Fall was allowed to be part of the history of mankind. Without our peoples' discombobulation, we never could have been reconfigured are something more beautiful, which knows its Savior all the more. Similarly:
"A certain money-lender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt." And he said to him, "You have judged rightly."
The second realization was this: incomprehensible things are outside of the realm of our imagination. This seems obvious at first glance, but at the very least, it has never been obvious to me. Due to a certain illness, I have faced an incredible amount of pain over the course of my life. However, the migraine I experienced was more painful than any other pain in my life without comparison. In many ways, a heightened form of the stab of brain-freeze, only for a period of around three-and-a-half hours instead of three-and-a-half seconds. A sickening, incapacitating pain which caused my teeth to chatter, arms to shake, and knees to (literally) knock together.
While the migraine was happening, I realized something significant: my imagination can barely carry me outside of the realm of my experience. If the proverbial "scale of pain" ranges from 1-10, the greatest pain I had experienced before my migraine was perhaps a 5. Anything beyond that was incomprehensible to me. When watching "Master and Commander," while the little boy's arm is cut off with a saw, the greatest pain I could connect with that in my mind was a 5, when perhaps the pain itself was a 9. I could understand it, but only to the extent that a person knows the look of the Sun by the shadows--it is beyond his experience. Now that I have had my migraine however, when I watch "Master and Commander" again, I will be able to associate my 7 with the little boy's 9, and be able to comprehend that terrible scene in a much better light.
The significance of this principle, is that many things, good or bad, are not merely "more than we understand," but entirely outside of our realm of understanding. The Christian is altogether incapable of knowing the joys of heaven, the love of God, or the pain of Hell. These things are completely beyond our grasp. So, when we preach to those who do not know the living God, it is our absolute lack of understanding which should drive us. We know what will happen to them, but we cannot comprehend it. Just the same, we should be pushed forward to serve Yahweh, not based on the 4 of joy we comprehend, but on the understanding that there exists a 10 which we have never grasped. When we compare our present sufferings with the joy we have experienced in this life, it is toss-up whether or not it is worthwhile to bear the burden of the cross. But, when we remember that the joys to come, when we see Him face to face, are indescribably greater than the greatest things we have experienced, we will have the strength to continue.
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