The Dreaded "S" Word

Of course, I am not trying to imply that all suffering in our lives is noble, profound, heroic or even undeserved.  In fact, I might say that majority of our household’s day-to-day, run-of-the mill suffering is self-inflicted and happens as a result of downright stupidity of various members taking turns at it.  My children are almost professionals in this area. I guess they learned it from the best. Perhaps this is why our family’s favorite TV show is America’s Funniest Home Videos. Every Sunday evening we spend an hour laughing at ordinary people doing dumb things and experiencing various degrees of painful consequences.  I always wonder why it’s so delightfully refreshing and quite entertaining to see somebody else publicly humiliated and even injured for their unintelligent choice.  Of course, the participants in the show may actually cash out their foolishness.  But, I wouldn’t recommend it as a career. 

I think that the creators of the show are onto something , though. Helping people put their mistakes in a larger context, being able to laugh at your own as much as other people’s stupidity truly is an all-around good medicine. Life is hard enough, and sincere laughter is a well-documented healer. 

I also need to remember that not all pain and suffering has moral weight to it.   Ignorance, immaturity, honest misjudgment and naivety can cause some serious injuries but they are not necessarily morally wrong.  Some parts of our brain don’t develop until we are in our late twenties. I have to remind myself of this physiological fact every time one of my children makes an exceptionally outrageous choice.

What were you THINKING?!!!

I dunno.  That part of my brain is still missing and it's not going to show up until I am out of this house. 

Learning from our mistakes and the pain associated with it is an integral part of growing up and maturing. Some lessons will just not sink in until we begin to hurt.  All my driving life I considered the small signs with the big black numbers written on them on the side of the road as ‘speed suggestions’.  I always appreciated their grandfatherly feedback, but being mature, responsible, capable adult, I felt at liberty to determine the actual speed of my vehicle and drive accordingly. It took one flailing policeman and $180 speeding ticket for me to for the first time see the little signs as the speed limit – the law!  One could say that I got away easy since this lesson hurt my wallet only, and I would have to agree (despite the fact that I had at least a dozen better uses for the money).  But, easy or hard, I have to say that the pain was sufficient to virtually transform my driving from that day on.

 The Scripture says that, even though He was God’s Son, Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).  If the sinless Son of God needed to go through some painful experiences to learn such a valuable lesson as obedience, who do I think I am to get away without similar training?!!!