Pleasure and Pain

1 Peter 1:4-9

Pragmatism is the philosophy of our age. Which means that philosophy is dead, because philosophy is the investigation of truth. And pragmatism doesn't care about truth. It cares about pleasure and pain. The question isn't "is it true" but "does it feel good." Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain certainly seems like a good idea. The problem is that it's too near-sighted. So when Peter says that in the Christian life we may have to "suffer grief in all kinds of trials" we begin to wonder if full surrender is the way to go. In fact, says Peter, these trials, it seems, are brought upon us intentionally as a way of testing our faith. Will we like Job be proven genuine followers of God? Will we praise Him in the midst of storms? Will we "love him when we don't see Him?"

There are certainly times when I can only wonder if my faith is genuine. Pastors have very pragmatic pressures to keep up the faith. So there can be a myriad of reasons to believe, none of which stem from a genuine faith. So we need testing. We need to be beat down. Our faith needs to be refined so that no impurities steal from the beauty of true faith. True, genuine faith gives what pragmatism cannot even dream of--"an inexpressible and glorious joy" that transcends both pleasure and pain.

This might at first sound almost Buddhist. But to transcend pleasure and pain in Buddhist thought is to extinguish desire and longing. Christian faith does not seek to minimize or extinguish desire and longing but rather to embrace both pain and pleasure head on--to praise God for the glorious ways in which the material world can stimulate us and in the midst of trials to draw strength from Him who does not even remove himself from pain but willingly identifies with us in our suffering.