Sometimes You Just Have To Complain

Mark Twain said, "A man learns some things by picking a cat up by the tail that he can learn in no other way." I've found that adversity is a great teacher.  The last few days have been a little tumultuous in our lives.  I rarely, if ever, get sick, but Sunday I was under the weather.  I preached the morning service but let my dad take care of the afternoon service and I went home and went to bed. Monday was worse, I was weak and congested and hurting all over, but I didn't get to rest much because my dad had a spell where he had no strength, he was short of breath, and even fell in the floor a couple of times.  We took him to the doctor and eventually he was admitted to the hospital.  They found out that he had a severe urinary tract infection that had gotten into his blood causing sepsis.  He is doing much better now, but the process of finding out what the problem was taught me an important lesson about why the Lord allows pain in our lives.  My dad has been dealing with some health problems for a while and has learned to live with the difficulties and inconveniences that they bring.  He doesn't complain about anything.  he just deals with it and goes on about his business.  The problem is that apparently, some of his pain recepters are not functioning, so the symptoms that would normally warn you about a developing problem go unnoticed.  Most people with the type of infection that he had would have been experiencing terrible pain days ago, but because there was no pain, he had no idea that he had a problem.  The situation had to get bad enough to knock him down before anyone realized that there was a problem.
Sometimes we wonder why, if God truly loves us, He allows us to suffer pain, sorrow, and disappointment.  The truth is, pain is usually the indicator that there is a problem somewhere.  If you place your hand on a hot stove, the pain tells you that you should move it before real, lasting damage is done.  If you had no pain, your hand would be seriously burned before you even noticed the problem.  God is a loving Father, who doesn't wish pain on any of His children, but He knows that sometimes it is necessary to get us to change course.  Whenever we start to experience pain, sorrow, or difficulty, maybe it is time to look at our lives and see if God is trying to get our attention.  Maybe He is just trying to get us to take a step back and consider Him.
The doctors told my dad that diagnosing his problem was difficult because he didn't complain about anything.  Now, I'm not recommending complaining about our problems, but sometimes our problems go unsolved because we aren't willing to tell anyone about them.  God intended for us to live in community with other believers and for us to bear one anothers' burdens.  If we don't share our feelings and our needs with someone, they can escalate into major catastrophes before they are even noticed.
My dad is going to be fine.  He will have to make a couple of changes to his daily routine, but none of his problems are life-threatening.  But from now on, he is going to have to make others more aware when he suspects a problem.  It wouldn't be a bad idea for all of us to get a little more involved in the lives of those around us--to genuinely care about their needs--so that little irritations don't become major problems.