[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fout-of-control":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fout-of-control-surround":78},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":12,"columnName":59,"date":60,"description":61,"extension":62,"image":63,"meta":64,"minRead":65,"navigation":66,"path":67,"postType":68,"publication":69,"publicationUrl":63,"seo":70,"stem":71,"topics":72,"__hash__":77},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fout-of-control.md","Out of Control",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10,11],"Proverbs","Job","Hebrews",{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":55},"minimark",[15,24,27,30,33,36,39,46,49,52],[16,17,18,19,23],"p",{},"Pain is God's \"megaphone to rouse a deaf world\" (C. S. Lewis in ",[20,21,22],"em",{},"The Problem of Pain",").",[16,25,26],{},"\"Ninety percent of what gets done in this world is accomplished by people who don't feel very good\" (Ben Merold, preacher at Harvester Christian Church of St. Charles, Missouri).",[16,28,29],{},"\"Daddy, I don't think a day ever goes by when something doesn't hurt\" (my daughter Mindy, at age eight).",[16,31,32],{},"Most of us feel more secure when everything is under control. In fact, few phrases create more discomfort than the words, \"out of control.\" When a car, a plane, or a fire is out of control, terrible damage occurs. We groan when our weight, our schedule, or even the clutter on our desk gets out of control. The Bible says \"a wise man keeps himself under control\" (Proverbs 29:11).",[16,34,35],{},"But what about the many things outside our control? We can't control the weather, but we can carry an umbrella when the skies threaten rain. We can't control the traffic, but we can leave home early to allow for possible delays. We can't control our government leaders, but we can influence their decisions by voting, writing letters, and making phone calls. We can't stop the aging process, but we can exercise, eat healthy food, and avoid risky behaviors that damage our bodies and minds.",[16,37,38],{},"When a child falls and scrapes his elbow, a bandage and a mother's soothing words dry the tears. When disease or injury afflicts our bodies, often we can control the pain or eliminate it altogether through physical therapy, medicine, surgery or simply through the healing effects of time. But despite every effort to alleviate it, for some of us pain—unrelenting, almost unbearable pain—rages out of control. Remember Job? Afflicted with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, Job groaned, \"What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil\" (Job 3:25, 26).",[16,40,41,42,45],{},"What shall we say to the man whose back hasn't stopped hurting since he injured it on the job 20 years ago? Or the little girl who lives in chronic pain from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis? Or the woman who seldom makes it through a week without the misery of a migraine? And what about the piercing pangs of emotional wounds that never seem to heal? Pain is a part of life, but as Philip Yancey says in ",[20,43,44],{},"Where Is God When It Hurts?"," (Zondervan, 1997), it is the \"gift nobody wants.\"",[16,47,48],{},"Suffering makes a stern but diligent teacher, instilling in us vital lessons that eventually will produce \"a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it\" (Hebrews 12:11). Suffering teaches us lessons we could learn no other way—lessons about God's strength, about serving others, and about identifying with our crucified Lord.",[16,50,51],{},"On the cross, Jesus suffered excruciating pain. Held there by spikes—and by his love for us—Jesus was effectively paralyzed, without control, unable even to wipe away his own sweat or lift a drink of water to his lips. He hurt from his thorn-crowned head to his nail-pierced feet, from his outstretched hands to his raw, beaten back. Betrayed by a friend, ridiculed by his enemies, and rejected by the people he came to save, he voiced unfathomable spiritual pain in his mournful cry, \"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\" On that dark day when pain reigned, it appeared that evil was in control. But God still was.",[16,53,54],{},"And God still is.",{"title":56,"searchDepth":57,"depth":57,"links":58},"",2,[],"From the Editor's Desk","2001-03-18","Pain is God's \"megaphone to rouse a deaf world\" (C. S. Lewis in *The Problem of Pain*).","md",null,{},3,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fout-of-control","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":61},"articles\u002Fout-of-control",[73,74,75,76],"Biblical Theology","Christian Unity","Perseverance in Suffering","Church Leadership","y1hiwjJTyV_wXzp7oajhvT6m16PEIHWZIPsHfDYKIoA",[79,84],{"title":80,"path":81,"stem":82,"description":83,"children":-1},"Our Goal: Encouragement","\u002Farticles\u002Four-goal-encouragement","articles\u002Four-goal-encouragement","When people ask me, \"How do you like the magazine business?,\" I don't quite know what to say. The way I see it, we're in the encouragement business. Hebrews 3:13 says to \"encourage one another daily.\" Weary parents, insecure children, overworked elders, teens, singles, married couples, bosses, coworkers, neighbors, missionaries—whoever they are and wherever they live, people need encouragement.",{"title":85,"path":86,"stem":87,"description":88,"children":-1},"Out of the Ashes","\u002Farticles\u002Fout-of-the-ashes","articles\u002Fout-of-the-ashes","Disasters have become a common part of our daily news. The son of a famous president dies in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard, and millions watch with grim curiosity as divers search for his body in the wreckage and mourners prepare for his burial at sea. Killers take dozens of lives in a Colorado high school, an Atlanta office building, and a California Jewish center, and the nation grieves."]