I've been reading "The Problem of Pain" by C.S. Lewis. A great book! He talks about how we sometimes object to God's discipline, wondering why He continually pokes and prods at us, trying to improve us instead of just letting us alone. If He loves us just as we are now, why does He insist that we change?

It's easier to understand this when you think of a puppy: The puppy comes into the family with lots of unpleasant aspects which when you think about it, are simply "natural." The puppy will do his business on the floor, he won't keep his fur clean (he smells) and he'll bite and bark inappropriately. It's his animal nature, after all. He can't help it. ...

But though we love the puppy just as he is, we do not love those ugly things about him. So we lovingly train him to be the dog we want him to be. We have his greater good in mind. And in the end, he is kept clean (washed in the tub even if he hates it) and he learns to obey us. This process can be painful for the pup because it will involve discipline, which hurts (just like in child-rearing). But what it comes down to is this: If you truly love someone, you aren't content to let them remain sitting in their harmful dirt and rags. And so it is with God! He loves us just as we are - but because He loves us, He wants us to be pure - to be the best we possibly can be.

Hebrews 12:11 says, No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Furthermore, Isaiah 64:8 says, Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Below is a thought-provoking excerpt from "The Problem of Pain" by C.S. Lewis. He had a real gift for analogies! :)

.........

"Theoretically, I suppose, we might say, 'Yes: we behave like vermin, but then that is because we are vermin. And that, at any rate, is not our fault.' But the fact that we are vermin, so far from being felt as an excuse, is a greater shame and grief to us than any of the particular acts which it leads us to commit. The situation is not nearly so hard to understand as some people make out. It arises among human beings whenever a very badly brought up boy is introduced into a decent family. They rightly remind themselves that it is 'not his own fault' that he is a bully, a coward, a tale-bearer and a liar. But none the less, however it came, his present character is detestable. They not only hate it, but ought to hate it. They cannot love him for what he is, they can only try to turn him into what he is not. In the meantime, though the boy is most unfortunate in having been so brought up, you cannot quite call his character a "misfortune" as if he were one thing and his character another. It is he ~ he himself ~ who bullies and sneaks and likes doing it. And if he begins to mend he will inevitably feel shame and guilt at what he is just beginning to cease to be."

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