Through pains and suffering, God sanctifies our lives.
By Leonard Akida
Apparently, I attended a Thanksgiving Mass for one of my bestie who has had a prolonged traumatic disorder and had undergone a successful Brain surgery. Let me call her Chullu [ not her real name ]. Chullu was a very notorious girl in her village and at school because of her appalling behaviour.
In fact, I wouldn’t be quoted wrong referring to her a criminal. All her old students in High School can well tell how Chullu master minded a strike and tempted to set a school laboratory at a blaze. Almost each one of you has got one student with similar behaviours to Chullu.
Chullu’s name became popular in her village [ let’s call it Kakindo] and in legal authorities for fighting against the village women and elders who would gossip about her or try advising her to change. At one point, police suspended attending to frequent reports against her misconducts. Cases related to drug abuse, Ukahaba, fighting in bars were often reported to authorities.
When Chullu was diagnosed with Brain trauma everyone in her family became unconscious in fears of losing a relative. The villagers as expected in any given society started criticisms and if I am to be sincere, a few of them were sympathetic towards my friend.
The unbearable pains became a state of discomfort to the patient that later turned into her renewal.
C.S Lewis once said: “Pain is the megaphone of God, to arouse a deaf world. It is not only his way of speaking to a deaf world, but also to his choicest servants.”
On her sick bed two days to her operation, a team of Kindergatten pupils visited her ward praying for patients and donating to them items to use. Chullu recalls a voice speaking to her heart to confess her sins and accept Jesus as a personal saviour.
“Whilst the young pupils asked us to forgive and be pardoned of our sins, I felt touched and privately asked God to pardon me.” She testifies.
She hastily admits through strong pains and suffering, she was able to realise about her appalling behaviours and the need to confess and be born again in Christ. Psalms. 119:71, “It is good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn thy statutes.” Scriptures tells you how God speaks to man through pains.
In a recent book I read; Whisper by Mark Batterson, the writer emphasises on the greater forces of pains to draw man close to God for his (man) sanctity.
“Nothing gets our full attention like pain. It breaks down false idols and purifies false motives. It reveals where we need to heal, where we need to grow. It refocuses priorities like nothing else. And pain is part and parcel of God’s sanctification process in our lives.” excerpts of the Whisper book.
It’s a common belief to some people that God shall himself remove their pains. Chullu might have had such thoughts too until when she confessed with her lips that Jesus is the Lord and responded to His voice.
Rather than assume it is God’s will to remove pains, take Time to listen to God amidst pains to see if he is trying to say something to you. St. Paul was sanctified through much pains ” a throne in the flesh” 2 Corinthians 12:7 – God uses your pains to increase your compassion for other hurting people
