ILLNESS

At my small church, there are at least 4 people with family members with cancer. I have a friend in town who just had her 2 year old son diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. I have two patients at work who have cancer and go to radiation treatment daily. And that's just the instances of cancer that I know about. Illness, pain , and death are a reality in this world, but we don't like to act like it. How much time do we spend trying to avoid pain in our lives? We want to distract ourselves or not pay attention to it. What about pain in others' lives? We don't really want to enter in to talk with and walk with them in their pain - we would rather not because it is so often messy with no clear cut answers. How much time do we spend living under the illusion that we can control life and rid it of pain? Let's don't run away. Its just not the truth. Also, then we cannot comfort one another. Also it doesn't glorify the Lord to run away from pain when he himself has been the Suffering Servant.