Forgiveness: the problem of pain

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Talking about forgiveness must acknowledge the pain that so often, if not always is present in the forgiveness process. The giver of forgiveness and the recipient of forgiveness have at some level felt keen pain. C.S. Lewis wrote two great books on the subject of pain: The Problem of Pain and A Grief Observed.

Lewis exposes his deepest pain to the reader and he responds so beautifully to his pain and suffering. Lewis believes in an omnipotent and loving God and he reconciles his pain as part of Gods divine plan for not only his life, but for the greater purposes of God. Lewis is careful not to minimalize his grief and anguish he felt upon the death of his wife. He acknowledges his hurt as part of the continuum of his devotion to the God he loves.

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal."  Lewis

It is not Godly to pretend you don’t have pain. It is not healthy to deny your feelings of deep pain or heights joy. These emotions are not wrong. To deny your feelings is to deny the very impulses that God so lavishly has bestowed upon us. Some Christ followers believe that time will heal them. This is untrue. Time passes and our unhealed pain simply grows a callous on our hearts. We become hardened and bitter as we stuff pain and pretend it does not matter. It erupts out in us in other ways as we live out our days. It effects our family, our friends, and how we perceive God. It changes a man. When you separate yourself from the truth, it divides the reality you must face day after day. Then at that point is when we only feel hopeless and out of control. This is not God’s design for pain.

I’d like to meditate on a few thoughts of Lewis. Then we can 

launch into how pain and forgiveness is for good and will ultimately bring joy.

"We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin."

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

"Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.”

"Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is..."