Pain. You hate it. I hate it. My 21-month old Victoria hates it. The other I took in a prescription for her and the pharmacist handed me a Medication Flavoring Request Form.
Huh? I had never seen something like that before. It is a flavoring 'service' where you can add a flavor. There are many flavors to choose from: apple, banana, bubble gum, cherry, grape, grapeade, grape bubble gum, lemon, raspberry, sour apple, and watermelon!
Do you wish that for .99 you could add some flavor that would take away the horrible taste of some of the things life gives us to swallow?
But is not that what we so often do already? We bury ourselves in our jobs to ease the pain of past failures; we take too much joy in sports because we have opted out of the spiritual battle that takes place all around us; we engage our lives completely in temporary things and forget the eternal; we snort drugs, sip whiskey, or spend hours surfing internet porn so that the taste in our mouths will go away.
But it does not go away. Does it? Nope. Life is sometimes tough and if not downright nasty tasting then at least tasteless.
But God, who gave us the taste buds in our mouth and the 'taste buds' in our hearts, knows what excites the tongue and the heart.
God adds Himself into our lives instead of adding Medication Flavoring that falsely covers the bad taste of life. And when God is added the flavor, the view, the scent, and the feel of everything changes.
The Gospels say to look diligently and faithfully for the Kingdom of God and everything else in this world will seem a whole lot better: including pain.
