Love and Pain
My Dogs, Mackie (right) and Daisy (Left).
Three years ago my beloved yellow lab died. She was 14.5 years old when I had to her put down.
Mackie was our family’s first dog. We took her to dog school as a puppy. We took her camping. I took her on many hikes. We played frisbee. She retrieved anything I threw, including a big log I found. As a big 80 pound piece of muscle, we wrestled, she was the perfect playmate. Amy and the kids loved her too except that she barked too much. I ran interference for the dog all her life, meaning that I took all the heat in our family for all the dumb things she did. Now, that’s true love.
The evening that I had her put to sleep I was sitting in my blue recliner just weeping. My two other little dogs, as perceptive as they are, came to sit with me in my grief. It is like they were instructed by God Himself to come comfort me in my loss.
My phone rang. It was my father-in-law, Gene. He also was on a mission to comfort me. Gene asked me, “Do you know why you are so sad about Mackie dying?”
“When you sign up for love, you sign up for pain.”
I said, “Yes, I know why I’m so sad.”
He asked, “Why are you so sad?”
“It is because I loved that dog so much!” I said.
Gene said only 3 words, “That’s right!”
I got off the phone and pondered our conversation. I remembered this phrase I wrote a few years earlier. If you sign up for love, you sign up for pain. Those are the rules. We cannot break these rules. Many people unconsciously resist loving because of their deep aversion to feeling pain. I suggest the pain is completely worth it.
In my present situation, many of my friends are in great pain due to my brain cancer. The pain is so real and so heavy. It is for me too. The reason for the pain is similar as it was for me and Mackie. It is because we have so much love for each other.
My lab, Mackie.
The lesson goes even further. Because God loves us so much, He signs up for pain. Remember, the God of the universe deeply loves you and me. He desires to be close. He desires to do good to us. He desires our best. All of which are descriptions of love. But He honors the rule. He also signed up for pain by sending His Son Jesus to visit planet earth to be crucified for our sins, God plays by the same rules! It is probably the most beautiful story in the history of the universe. He invites us into a relationship that will also be filled with pain.
Let’s decide today that we will not be people who run from the pain. But people who know the rule. Let’s sign up for love right now, knowing full well that pain is coming right behind.