Living the curse, chasing the promise

In the Army I was a 31E20, “Field Radio Mechanic.” The Army made an earnest effort to “train” me to find and use the appropriate manual for any communication device and repair any problem it may have. While stationed at Fort Richardson, outside Anchorage, Alaska, my shop was a big box on the back of a “duce and a half.” It was parked outside the motor pool of our “detachment.” I liked it there. Seldom did any one of rank come by to interrupt our laid-back work environment.

There were only four or five us in our part of the motor pool building. Occasionally one of the truck guys would need a soldering iron for some small electrical issue. I kept a special one just for the occasion. I took that iron apart and attached a diode, a class semiconductor, between the two wires of the power cord. When the iron was plugged into the electrical box, the diode would explode with a loud bang. The reaction of the mechanic would be hilarious. Everyone in the motor pool would have a great laugh, even the victim of the prank.

After two and a half years in Alaska, I was transferred for the last nine months of my enlistment to Fort Bragg. I was assigned to a much larger electronic shop where I was among twenty or more electronic repairmen. At some point in my assignment, I became friends with the guy with whom I shared a workbench. One day I played the old diode trick on him. Everyone in the room jumped and started laughing except for our sergeant who was working in his office. He was not so amused. The next day I found myself sweeping floors down at the USO building. That’s where I stayed until I got out of the Army. And, I was never again asked to reenlist.

I said all that because I was enjoying the memory and to point out the round knob on your radio that you use to increase or decrease the volume. On the front of the radio it is called a volume control, but behind the face of the radio is a little device we called the “gain control pod.”

My experience in life has taught me that people have a sort of “gain control pod” in their soul. It adjusts the volume of God calling us back to Him. I believe it is His hope that we will react to the lowest volume of His corrective intervention in a Believer’s life. God’s corrective voice is not something we like to hear. The reluctant follower will often go to extreme measures to deny hearing to drown out that voice. We are just reluctant to change or surrender a part of our “freedom of choice” to adapt to God’s perfect choice.

When we do not respond to his “still small voice,” he will increase the gain, volume. He will do so until one of two things happen. We go deaf to his love or we cry out in pain and adapt to His wishes. The pain of this life always, ALWAYS, has a purpose, to make us uncomfortable in our life and move deeper into His Life.

I have a very strong aversion to pain! But I have discovered why, its God telling me to move closer to where He is. A painless life is nowhere promised to any human. Go back to Genesis and you will discover the opposite is true, we are promised a curse. Pain reminds us that a painless day is coming but until then our God is steadfast in moving us out of our way deeper into His Way. And pain seems to be a very effective way of doing it. God has other tools, but humans don’t seem as ready to change with them.

So, for today and tomorrow or until Jesus returns, God does not spare us pain. The pain of our lives can cause us to despair or into depression left to follow its unhindered trek. Or we can seek meaning beyond the pain allowing it to remind us that while we are living the curse, we can always choose to chase the promise and hope in the certain cure. I must admit this is far easier to write than it is to do. I need the help of other like-hearted promise chasers. So will you.

Photo – Approaching storm taken at Fernandina, Florida.