Pain Is a Microphone, Part 4

Nothing Is Wasted

But be of good cheer. There is a connection between the strength of our pain and the volume of our voices. Jesus said in John 12:32,

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.

The more we hurt, the louder we become.

This is why, though it is tempting, you must not be selfish with your pain. The things God deposits in your spirit in the midst of suffering are the same things that someday other people will desperately need.

When you’re going through a trial, it’s easy to block out other people who are hurting. You might think, I can’t worry about them. I’m sorry other people have it bad, but I’m just barely coping. I’m hanging on by a thread. I could hardly get out of bed this morning, so I just need to focus on me right now. No one will blame you. But you are wasting the anointing oil your crushing produced. If you would be willing to step out in faith and serve other people when you’re in the fire yourself, you will find a huge boost in volume, because you are plugged into a microphone called pain.

There are two reasons why your volume gets louder as life gets harder. First, when you’re going through a great time of trial, people around you tend to get quieter. Their voices hush out of respect.

Smart people walk on tiptoe around hearts that are on fire.

When you’re a Christian and you’re going through a great time of difficulty, you will notice that those around you who don’t know Jesus Christ — especially those you’ve shared your faith with before — will lean in extra close. Their ears perk up. They want to see if what you have advertised is going to prove true in the product demonstration. You told them that Jesus is the light of your world. Well, now your power has been cut, and they want to see if you can glow in the dark. You’ve told them that Jesus is the anchor for your soul; He is the solid rock you can stand on. Now everything around you is giving way, and they want to find out if you’re going to sink in the sand. If they do see your claims proven true, you’ll find a greater willingness on their part to trust Christ in their own lives.

The second reason your volume gets louder when life gets harder is because in trials, you can hear God better. Why is this? Because He comes closer! That’s what we find in Psalm 34:18:

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart.

1. C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”2 And the nearer He is, the better we can hear Him and the more we can do for Him.

You’re actually better fit for ministry in the crucible of pain.

You have a stronger voice to project and to declare, and it’s easier to belt from the diaphragm of your soul when you’re hurting. It’s counterintuitive, but in the middle of my hardest mess, I’ve found ministry to be a great strength waiting to be tapped into. It was welling up within me — a greater desire than ever before to tell the whole world that Jesus Christ can turn off the dark — because I experienced it myself. Right there, at ground zero, in the valley of the shadow of death. As hard as it was to claw our way through on hands and knees in those moments, Jennie and I found that when we poured our pain into ministry, whole new levels of usefulness opened up.

There’s perhaps no time you are as powerful as when you minister in the midst of pain.

Selah ~ think on this
Connie

1. A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1955), 137.
2. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (1940; repr. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), 91.

Excerpted with permission from Through the Eyes of a Lion by Levi Lusko, copyright Levi Lusko.

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