While it is difficult to form a philosophy on the problem of pain, reconciling the theoretical and the experiential is an entirely different creature. These are my thoughts as I try develop my theology of pain and suffering.
This blog is a response to the chronic physical pain I have been living with for the past year. I don’t have the corner on suffering in the world, nor do I fully understand it. Rather than become hard and bitter by dwelling on my circumstances, I want to become compassionate and empathetic by learning from those who have gone before me and those who are beside me.
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. -The Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
