A New Devotion - No Shame in Pain

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. It's based on the passage below. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

2 Timothy 1:8-14 [Contemporary English Version]

Don't be ashamed to speak for our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me, just because I am in jail for serving him. Use the power that comes from God and join with me in suffering for telling the good news.

God saved us and chose us

    to be his holy people.

We did nothing

    to deserve this,

but God planned it

    because he is so kind.

Even before time began

God planned for Christ Jesus

    to show kindness to us.

Now Christ Jesus has come

to offer us God's gift

    of undeserved grace.

Christ our Savior defeated death

and brought us

    the good news.

It shines like a light

and offers life

    that never ends.

My work is to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher. This is why I am suffering now. But I am not ashamed! I know the one I have faith in, and I am sure he can guard until the last day what he has trusted me with. Now follow the example of the correct teaching I gave you, and let the faith and love of Christ Jesus be your model. You have been trusted with a wonderful treasure. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us.

No Shame in Pain

When I was a teenager, I got involved in a Christian group that believed that God blesses true believers with health and wealth and happiness. And even though they taught me a lot about the Bible and how a person could follow Jesus Christ, after a while, their ideas about divine blessings became problematic, at least they did for me. You see, since I believed that God took special care of folks whose faith was strong and who were doing what he wanted them to do, things were fine when life was fat. In other words, I felt pretty comfortable with my relationship with him when my grades were good and my dance card was full. But when things weren’t so great, when I forgot we were having a test in second period and I struck out with Valerie, Linda and Pinkie, well, not only was I naturally miserable, but I found myself questioning my closeness with God. And to make matters worse, I couldn’t share those doubts and fears with my Christians friends, because that would be like confessing that I’d sliden back and might even be below salvation’s minimum standard. In short, any kind of pain made me feel shame, something I had to deal with alone.

But of course, that’s not what Paul wrote to Timothy. As a matter of fact, he felt no shame in his suffering, because he recognized that not only is pain and disappointment just a part of living in the real world, but there are times when being the kind of person that God has called us be and doing the kind of things God has equipped us to do may make life difficult. You see, for him, faith helps us through and not around suffering. And it helps us endure and not avoid disappointments. And I’ll tell you, since I know that now, I recognize that there really is no shame in pain.