Planning for Pain (Two Colds in Two Weeks God?!)

Two weeks ago I came down with a cold. The timing was horrible! I was driving home for Thanksgiving when my throat started to feel constricted. By the time we got to our parents' home, I was out for the count.

But the whole time, I was preaching the Gospel to myself and trying not to wallow in my typical I'm-sick-feel-sorry-for-me self-pity. I continually reminded myself that God's timing is perfect and that he was using this for my sanctification and his glory. And I got over that cold.

The very next week, here I am just barely out of the healthy gate and my throat starts to itch. Sure enough, that night I started round two with my second cold in two weeks. And I have to say, I am feeling much less holy this time. "Two colds in two weeks God? Seriously?" This cold (and its timing) really caught me off guard!

As much as I was prepared for the first cold, I have been surprised by the second.

So it was in that context that I was reading Tim Lane and Paul Tripp's book How People Change this week. In God's providence, my current chapter was on the trials and sufferings of life. (Yes, a cold could be a trial. Not persecution of course, but a trial for sure.)

The authors asked me a series of questions about "why suffering tends to surprise us". That's a good question. Why was I so surprised that God would send not one but two colds my way in two weeks? Did I have the right to be surprised? (Granted, this second round is enough to knock me out of the pulpit for a week!) Here are their thought-provoking questions when we find ourselves surprised by trials: (Lane & Tripp, 119)

1. Do you tend to minimize how painful life can be?


2. Do you expect life to be free of trouble? (This often happens when we think we lead a good life compared to others.)


3. Do you tend to think of good things and bad things as completely separate experiences? In reality, difficulty is often hidden in blessing, and blessing is found in difficulty. [OUCH!]


4. Do you expect the good things you have to be permanent?


5. Do you live as if you are invincible thinking that you will have the wisdom and strength to avoid or endure suffering? Are you surprised when you don't?


6. Are you trusting your life to modern technology's apparent ability to protect or rescue us?


7. Do you place undue confidence in your ability to control your life, mistakenly assuming that you can manage your way out of suffering?

The point: don't be surprised at trials!

1 Pet. 4:12 "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you."

Plan for pain. God is going to bring both pain, suffering, and relief into your life. Do not be surprised. Instead, brace yourself by trusting today in a God who is completely in control and completely good!! Trust in God's favor and kindness toward you secured by Jesus Christ. If you turn and trust him alone for righteousness, then God is completely for you. He will sustain you, sanctify you, and advance his Kingdom through your fiery trials. To him be all the glory.

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