"Labor Pains" - Romans 8:18-28
-Rev. A. L. Torrence
Pastor of the Cross of Life Lutheran Church
Labor Day Weekend- for most of us, this is a time we attempt to get in that last summer vacation, that last barbecue or picnic, or that last major department store sale. The holiday also signals the ending of summer and the beginning of fall. Labor Day in the year 2000 has come to mean many different things to many different people. However, Labor Day was intended as day to pay tribute to the American worker. It is holiday that is not connected with any conflicts, battles, civil wars, or victories. No, it is a day whereby the American nation says thank you to all those who have contribute to its economy, strength, and prosperity. Whether you a part-time dishwasher or surgical room scrubs nurse – Labor Day is your day. You may be homemaker to an employed spouse or an entrepreneur setting your own hours- labor day is still your day. The poet, Maya Angelou, penned a poem entitled, “Worker’s Song” which seems to capture the spirit of Labor Day. She writes,
“Big ships shutter down to the sea because of me. Railroads run on a twin-ness track ‘cause of my back. Woppa! Woppa! Woppa! Woppa! Cars stretch to a super length ‘cause of my strength. Planes fly high over season lands, ‘cause of my hands. Woppa! Woppa! Woppa! Woppa! I wake, start the factory humming, I work late keep the whole world running. And I got something, something coming, coming! Woppa! Woppa! Woppa!”
By the sweat of your brow, and the toil of your labor, America has built her wealth and power on your backs. Thus, for one day out of 365, Labor Day celebrates the fact that you work. In fact, if the truth were told, America has a desire for you to do more work. Companies have gone to great lengths to make the work environment more comfortable and attractive to its employees. That’s why we now see fitness rooms, childcare centers, and gourmet cafes being installed at the workplace. Dress codes have become more relaxed with the ideology that a comfortable and happy employee is a productive employee.
Now, for many of us, our motives for working may not be Marxist in nature. That’s is we are not driven to work in order that America will be great. No, our reasons are to pay bills, maintain a comfortable lifestyle, or to capture that American myth of a nice home, car, and family. We work because we have to work. The gross national product of US is not a part of our agenda. Reducing the national deficit or the rate of inflation is not the motivational factor for waking up early and going to bed late. No, we realize that in order to have some of the good life or any life worth living, we must do what all the descendants of Adam and Eve have done since the beginning of humanity. We will have to (work) or labor in order to survive. God’s words to Adam were, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat of the plants of field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.”
The fact of the matter is that as Christians, we are no longer under that curse. However, for many of us, there are times when we feel that everything we touch turns to slop. We work all day and night to only get thorns and thistles. We live just to pay bills, never having a little extra to save. You see, there seems to always be an emergency expense – children get sick, or something around the house breaks down – you know that one thing that not’s cover by warranty or a maintenance agreement. I mean, we can never get ahead. Come on, now can we be real with each other? There are times when we ask the question, “How come it seems that everything I do, has to be a struggle, when others seem to do it so easily?” We may have to work twice as hard to get the same paycheck that our co-workers get. We may have to study twice as long to earn that “B” in math that someone else’s got with just one night of cramming. We may have to get a second job just to make ends meet. Some of us may have even had to get married a second time, just to get it right. For some of us, life seems to be filled with constant struggle and disappointment. We feel that we continually come up short. We take two steps forward only having to take three back. Our life does not seem to be producing any good thing. Your question is like that of Brother Job: Lord, why me? What is it that I have done or have not done to bring these problems in my life? Why does it seem that I am head downward into endless spiral? Now, we dealing with a spirit of frustration and anger. We are snapping at people, easily provoked. And we can’t seem to figure out why all of this pain and hard labor is happening to us.
But it is not what you and I have done or have not done. It is what God is doing in us and through us. God has a work to complete in you and he is not finished until his glory has seen in you. Saint you need to know that what you going through is not designed to kill you but to make you better. What going on now in your life is designed to make you a finished product – a vessel for his use. You are not a failure. What God creates, he creates for a purpose. When he gives life there is a special path for that life to go. You are not destroyed. Paul says that we go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we are certainly going to go through the good times with him. With Jesus on our side and active in our lives we are no longer destined to be failures. Now that we have Jesus we can really achieve our visions and live out our dreams. We are free to live a new life in the freedom of God. That which you want, you can obtain. That which you desire, can becomes yours. God wants you to have an abundant life – a life worth living. Yes, you may have to travail but you are destined to triumph. You may have to bear your cross, but you will gain a crown. The fact of matter is what we are going through in our lives at this moment is what the medical profession calls parturition – childbirth or delivery. Paul says that all around us, we can observe s pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain are simply birth pangs. We are like pregnant mothers waiting for our moment of delivery. You are feeling the birth prangs of your faith in God. The womb of your faith is about to give birth. Your old life is giving birth to new life. Your old way of thinking is giving life to a new mentality.
In fact, that’s is where Cross of life is right now. Our faith is about to give birth. We are pregnant with different ministries and projects and as time goes by – the closer we come to the day of delivery we becoming physically and mentally uncomfortable. That’s why many of us are whining and complaining – Pastor, look at what they done to our church – broken fences, broken windows, dirty floors, dirty rooms. Or Pastor –I am just tired and can’t wait until this over. And when I think about Safe haven, the truth of the matter is that what God had given us was one of those sympathy’s garments. That’s why it was such a surprise. God wanted to see how we would act if we were really about to give birth.
Many of us are going through a painful delivery. It’s a process we must go through in order to get to our next level. Doctors Ingall and Solerno in their book, Maternal and Child Health Nursing, indicate that there are three stages in the process of giving birth. The first stage begins with the onset of regular definitive labor contractions. Life will begin to throw at you one painful situation after another. Maybe, it begins small like a small agitation – car engine goes, spouse and you have some words, sidewalk needs paving or roof needs repairs, your child gets a bad report card, - small agitations. However, soon after the agitations turn into powerful pains – The car is repossessed, our spouses act funny –(Talking about leaving you, they are sleeping around), children are out of control, junior is experimenting with drugs, Sally is on birth control, your company is laying off people. Definitive labor contractions – the doctor report comes back positive – there's a spot on your chest X-ray. Your life becomes one major painful event after another – well honey – it is the birthing process- the first stage.
The second stage involves the birth of the baby – offspring, the fruit that is within us. It’s usually during this process where all there one feels is one constant stream of pain. The physician and nurses have you up in that maternity chair and everybody looking at your business. And you don’t care; because all you can think about is how much pain you’re in. Oh come on now, maybe you have not been in that situation, when word has gotten out about your troubles. When everyone finds out that your life is not all together as you would like them to think it is. Your business is up in the air and everybody’s looking. The entire church knows about your troubled marriage. The whole neighborhood has found out about your daughter being knock-up or your son selling dope. Your friends know that you lost your job or you have trouble paying your bills. Everybody can see and know your business. And when you are in great pain, you don’t care. The only that’s on your mind is ending the pain – bringing the suffering to an end. And there are times in our lives when we may be going through so much- all we can think of is ending our suffering. Like any woman in labor we want something to numb the pain - you know to help us handle all the stress – a little coke and Mary jay now and then; a shot of vodka or couple extra cigarettes; maybe a wild party or two to get our groove back; or a extra helping of chocolate cake. We will do anything to take our minds off the pain - walking out that painful marriage, throwing our hands up in defeat and giving up on our wayward child, or even committing suicide. And it may not be that drastic for some of us, but you must know this saints, now is not the time to mess up. Right now, we are the most vulnerable that we can be and what we do during this age of delivery could result in stillbirth, miscarriage, or even our own death - suicide.
Satan wants you to give up. He knows what God has plan for you. He wants you to backslide into the old habits you gave up. He wants you to curl up in embarrassment and stay home not going to worship. But you have to tell the devil that giving up is not an option. Now is not the time to quit. It is important that you makeup your mind not to leave this planet without giving birth to those dreams, ideas, visions, and inventions you carry in the womb of your faith right now. Do not abort your baby of potential because of the suffering you are going through. Count it all joy.
God has something for our pain. Life any well prepared mother, you too have a birthing coach. Paul says that, ‘he is the Holy Ghost,” standing right there beside you helping you along. The Holy Ghost is coaching you during this process. . You’re struggling to just to catch your breath and breathe, and he is telling you when to breath and when to push. He’s telling you when to sit up and bear down. Oh come on, for those of us who been there, folks are still wondering how come you where able to get up out of the bed everyday? They wonder what kept you pressing on from day to day. They want to know how come you have not lost your mind. But that’s because of your coach. When you thought you were going to pass out- he revive you. When you thought you couldn’t push any more, he gave you power to press on. When you thought that you were taking your last breath, and you were about to die – he calmed your doubts and soothed your fears. Most of us got to a point during the struggle, when we could not even pray. All we could do was sob and cry – moan and groan. Yet, our birthing coach was able to make prayer out of your aching groans and kept you present before God. Oh God has given us someone for our pain – we just have to turn our faces to God and focus on him. Place our hand in his unchanging hand.
You just have bear down and keep on pushing. The life that God has for you will not occur until after you have push that baby out. That baby is your new life in him. A life of prosperity – your bills all paid, your children walking with God, and your spouse loving and caring for you. You’re struggling to get there, don’t give up down – keep on pushing. You got to press your way until you have birth that’s which is in you.
And, yet, the process of birth does not end with the delivery of the baby but it ends with the expulsion of the placenta – that’s the sack the baby came in. Many of us think that our transition ends when the struggle is over. However, it does not end until you have given birth to your testimony. Just as the medical profession uses the mother’s placenta for research and medicine other’s with illnesses, God wants to use your testimony to help bring someone else through their situation. You have to tell somebody. And I don’t know about you, but I made up my mind to tell somebody what God has done me. I said that wasn’t going to tell nobody but I just could not keep it to myself. God has brought me through some tough situations. I thought at one time I wasn’t going to the make it but God did not give up on me. I thank him for getting me through. I thank him for new attitude. I just thank him. Amen.
