The Problem of Pain in Regards to Nature

One of the most influential books in my lifetime has been that of C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain. I came to this book during my years in high school and have returned to it frequently. It has served to provide me with pieces of wisdom that helped decisions in my life as well as my friends lives. Something this is unavoidable is pain. We live in a world that is full of pain, of death, of suffering. It is inescapable. I find it interesting that Lewis makes a distinction between pains. As humans we are able to experience both physical pain and mental pain. Both are real, both are valid, but mental pain is more common and also harder to bear. It is true that the frequent attempt to conceal this mental pain increase its burden. Sometimes it takes just riding the pain out and letting it ferment until it develops into something. At times that may be developed character, other times it may be a different manifest burden. This is because pain insists on being attended to. As we heard in the Lewis class the other day, pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Many do not understand why pain comes up. They think they have done nothing in particular to deserve this. You see, if we try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free will involve, then we will see we have excluded life itself. We see pain is not concerned with that. However, the best news we have in relation to pain is we’ve been given an eternal anecdote to it. We have an eternal calling on our souls. Lewis said in this book that to enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth. We weren’t created for pain. God’s power means that he is capable of all that is intrinsically possible. All things are possible with God.