The absence of pleasure is not necessarily pain

Sounds rather maudlin doesn't it? Maybe even edging towards self pity? Nah! I am just having a darn time trying to get pleasure out of anything right now. his has to be the worst flu I have ever experienced. So, I am trying to rest, read, listen and drink lots of fluids.

Interesting though, today I read in my chronological bible reading about how Pilate had Jesus flogged because the "leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy" (see Mark 15:10). Being flogged 39 times with a lead tipped whip would have caused more than pain and yet His captors are shown as expressing pleasure in the way they treated Him before, during and after the flogging that would have killed me.

And I sit in comparative peace awaiting recovery I read as He awaited a known death of suffocation and more than that He knew that at some point in the next hours the Father would place the weight of the sins of all upon Him as payment in full. And yet the Father who lives outside of time allowed this to happen in time so that "once and for all" the penalty would be paid.

It doesn't mean that we live a perfect life without sickness and pain, in fact the very knowledge of my failure causes me emotional and spiritual pain. In the sickest way by forsaking His only Son, God the father accepted me and you into the friendship of His family. In fact He calls us joint heirs even though I have failed and will continue to fail miserably because I do not know or understand the depth of His love for me. He knows that I will fail and he knows that I will rise again, seek forgiveness and be restored(Proverbs 24:16). It is the one who refuses to accept restoration that will be counted with the wicked.