 |
| Photo by milan degraeve on Unsplash |
Sometimes, helping someone means hurting them. That sounds awful, so allow me to explain. I took a first aid class (online training followed by an in-person class) a few months ago. During the class, we learned how to help people with severe bleeding. In order to stop the bleeding, you need to apply a dressing to the wound and then apply pressure.
The online training had a video of a man applying a dressing
to a mannequin’s wounded leg. He gently placed the gauze in place, looked at
the mannequin, and said, “This may hurt a little.” Then he leaned on the
dressing with both hands. I thought that “a little” was an understatement.
Having someone put most of their body weight on a bloody gash in my leg sounds
excruciating. And yet, that added pain is actually a kindness because the absence
of the pain could lead to death.
There is a spiritual parallel here. It is worth causing
someone pain if that pain moves them from a hell-bound path to a heaven-bound
path. To go slightly farther, it is actually evil and selfish to avoid causing someone
pain in that situation.
I realize this may sound like I agree with the angry people
yelling hateful words on street corners and typing hateful words on their
keyboards in vain attempts to drive sinners from their sins. But I don’t agree
with them. The “if” statement above is so very important. Only if that pain
serves to, or can be reasonably thought to serve to, move someone in the right
direction (toward Christ’s healing) can that pain be justified. I am unaware of
anyone whose life has been meaningfully improved by hate. I am unaware of
anyone who has been convinced of the loving salvation of Christ by listening to
hateful words being spit at them. To go back to my first aid analogy, that
would be akin to finding a person bleeding from one leg and then stabbing them
in the other leg. It’s bringing pain without the possibility of healing. To be blunt,
it is evil.
But pain that brings healing? That’s worth going through. I
teach my kids about heaven and hell because I believe heaven and hell are real,
and ignoring that fact does no one any good. I have talked to my kids about racism
in our country. As white people, that can lead to feelings of shame. But
ignoring the painful conversation does not benefit anyone. Evil does not go
away when ignored. It thrives. I have a small group of men from my church that I’ve
met with every two weeks for years, and we have confessed our sins to each
other over the years not to glorify the sins or because that conversation is
any fun (it is not), but because honestly admitting our sins to my friends
allows me to admit them to myself and to ask God for forgiveness. It is pain
that leads to healing.
It is my hope that Christians will find a way to use the
pain caused by the offense of the cross to bring healing rather than more
wounds. Going back to that first aid class, the first step in any first aid
situation would be a good guide:
Check the scene for safety, form an initial impression,
obtain consent, and use personal protective equipment (PPE)
I’m not sure what PPE would be in that case, but everything else
(especially consent) are good rules to follow before we start trying to help.
Comments