“The more we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there is any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might be bribed – might grow tired of his vile sport- might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would be useless.

C.S. Lewis “A Grief Observed”

I have chosen this piece for interpretation because sometimes it is hard for people to understand that life as a Christian is not always lollipops and gum drops, there are a lot of tears, plenty of trials and tons of tribulation. As Christians, we should grasp this understanding because if we are truly going to impact the world for Christ we need to be able to share the full Gospel – including the “hard parts” of Christianity.

“The more we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there us any use in begging for tenderness.”

Typically when people think about God they only think about the qualities of God that soothes the positive image of Him and completely shuns anything that would make God seem as if He were all powerful. It is like calling Him King and taking away His authority. Reading this passage one would more than likely furl their brow because it is beyond them that God would intentionally hurt us. However sometimes it is easily lost in the “feel good” gospels of today to truly embrace a relationship with Christ.

Christianity is more than good times; it is hurt and tears as well. When God allows painful or uncomfortable situations in our lives we can always ask for relief, but this passage lets you know that once one comes to realize who God is, the less likely they will be to ask God to relent. At those points it is clear that going through the fire only refines your knowledge of who the Holy One of Israel really is. God allows pain so that He can show us that He is truly the Comforter and He allows trials to show us that He is our Deliverer. What other way would you come to know the character of God?

“A cruel man might be bribed – might grow tired of his vile sport- might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety.”

Where would you be if God ever grew tired of watching you grow in Him? Dead…….spiritually dead. If God said for a moment alright let me not allow trails and tribulation into this person’s life because it is not necessary for them to “trust me” it is just better if they “believe in me”. Can you imagine what the state of Christianity would be today? There would have been no Jesus and no cross.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, before He was delivered to the Romans, Jesus Christ Himself was sorrowful. In the Garden He pleaded with the Father, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Imagine what it would be like today had God said, “Okay Jesus, since I love you so, you don’t have to die on the cross.” There would have been no salvation, no remission of sins, no stripes by which we are healed; we would have had no intercessor to intercede on our behalf to the Father. But that is not how it went because the will of Christ was not granted, it was over ruled by the will of the Father and here we are today, blood-bought children of the covenant.

“But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting.”

God sends us through hardships to refine us and to make us better image bearers of Him. How can we emulate what we don’t understand? God allows us to go through pains and trials to give us a new perception of who He is in His Sovereignty. As Christians sometimes we like to package God in this neat little box and give Him a list of Do’s and Don’ts. When people think about operations all they can think of is the pain and the down time but they completely forget the phase of recovery.

Recovery can be defined as the “act of obtaining usable substances from unusable sources” or “restoration to a former or better condition”. God as the Master Physician through painful situations removes a lot of the hindrances that in the way of perfect relationship with Him. The more He realizes that preconceived notions, about who He is, halts your relationship with Him the more He is going to more he cuts. Jesus stated it clearly in John 15 when He compares us to a vine: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” If God never took the time to prune our lives through circumstances would we truly bear fruit?

“If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would be useless.”

When things that seem unbearable in life close in on us, as Christians the first thing we do is say it’s the enemy and pray that God removes the circumstance. But what if day after day goes by and the situation still looks the same, does that mean that God did not hear you? On the contrary it is the exact opposite of that. God’s will is always perfect even when we don’t understand it. His plan is to grow us through trials, pain, and suffering but those are the exact things what we a Christians want to avoid. Imagine just for a moment what your life would be like had God stopped His pruning process all for your pleasure. You would still face the same issues over and over again. You would be “ever learning” about the same situations. Everything that you had gone through would become obsolete and the learning cycle would be on constant repeat.

I think this interpretation matters today because, as those who are going after God, we have to understand God’s nature. God is holy, just, and faithful. We have to get the understanding that everything in this walk will not always be good, but it will always be for our good, even when we can’t understand it. God is Sovereign, which means He does not have to explain His actions to anyone but at times He chooses to. When He allows pain, trials, and tribulation in our life it is because He is refining us for a new level in Him.