Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets. His writing simply get's to the point but has resounding thought behind every line. He always sets a memorable scene and if you pay attention his personality, especially his humor is part of the cadence. He wrote life well.
A question not to different from this poem was raised as a discussion point at our house with a very talented, bright, young man not to long ago. It is good to reflect on our inner thoughts every now and then and let the honest truth rise to meet us.
A Question
By Robert Frost
A voice said, look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
if all the soul-and body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.
Frost is asking if the pain one suffers in life is worth it especially when we did not choose to be born. It is a philosophically fraught question. We all ask at some point Why are we here on earth and pain usually is the catalyst for the question.
Perspective is a big deciding point on what the answer is for an individual. Perspective is the lens one sees life through. If you have a biblical lens the pain points to deeper meaning and can be used to God's glory. If you have a worldly lens in place the pain can still point to deeper meaning but doesn't get you closer to your maker.
Several years ago, in my prayer time, God spoke clearly in my spirit, "embrace the pain." At first, I thought who in their right mind would wrap themselves in pain and soak it in, we all naturally deflect from things that hurt us. We even have built in anatomical defense mechanisms to help us protect from physical and emotional pain. I stewed on this for years. How can the thought of being open to pain benefit a person at all, isn't this a bit crazy?
Pain is a reality and Frost brings this truth to full fruition in his question. It is a fact of life that one has to grapple with at some point on the path, once you are here, there is no getting around dealing with it.
God allows pain for a reason, it get's our attention, it makes you question and if your smart, it makes you want to talk to your Creator. It is a conversation opener to the One who made you.
Job was the prime example of pain used in the end for the Glory of God.
Jeremiah was the picture of emotional pain.
Paul was forewarned his life would be painful.
The apostles all met pain head on in some form.
The common denominator to the pain these real people experienced in their life was that God was there with them through it all, strengthening them, directing them, using them to proclaim truth, to thwart the devil's plans, to spiritually develop the plans of God; and yes, they complained about it. The complaints always lead them to an understanding of the Just nature of God and that trusting Him was always the thing to do. Eternal perspective was solidified in their hearts and that is why these real people made a difference.
The above mentioned biblical figures are only a few, there are countless others in the pages who experienced pain too.
We can't forget the pain Jesus experienced. He sweated blood over it. He took on all the pain the world could throw at him for the obedience of God's plan.
So when we are in pain, a lens to remember to view it through is Jesus.
Christians another thing to remember, when another is going through pain and embracing it, wisdom in how you are their friend is important. A sad face, a downtrodden heart is not always signs of sin, it may be just where God wants that individual for the purposes of His plan. (Job's dialogues with his friends is a good study when a brother/sister in Christ is burdened deeply. Remember the friends were wrong about Job although some of their points can be true, they just weren't true about Job. Jeremiah's emotional pain is also a good study, he wanted to run from his calling and boy did he pay dearly for being who God wanted Him to be). Lesson for me; obedience will get you in hot water but that's better than separation from God.
If we remember pain is God's tool to either root things out of us (Our sin brings pain), show the world He is in control (Job's pain was due to nothing he did), to send a message through someone (Jeremiah), to further His kingdom (martyrs and soul winners speaking truth to a hateful audience) it certainly gives answer to the question of if being born was worth it.
Yes, it is worth it. You are with your Creator. Even if you don't see it at the time, He's there and down the path of life, He'll make you look back and see exactly where he was with you the entire time.
Note:
God was right and it wasn't crazy several years ago when He dropped that wise warning into my Spirit. If I didn't embrace the pain, the storms in life would have overwhelmed me and I would have learned nothing. He's given me something special between me and Him I think I would have forfeited it if I chose to run. Running will make you find yourself at the same point over and over and blinded. Sitting still, embracing where your at keeps you sustained until the light at the end of the tunnel releases you into a stronger walk with Him.
So many scriptures come to mind, but I would love it if someone else showed some to me that have helped them deal with pain...What's your go to scripture?
I know
Robert Frost dealt personally with this Question, his life was met with grief and pain, I do like how he directed his pain, through his poetry.
Frost understands the need to escape and be young again, a great remedy for pain.
Birches By Robert Frost
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
