expanded

We live in a world swimming in an ocean of pain.  "Life is sufferring," is the first noble truth attributed to Siddartha Gautama, aka, the Buddha.  The Dread Pirate Roberts hurled the phrase "Life is pain," at the over-privileged Buttercup in response to her complaining of her unfair predicament in The Princess Bride. 

Pain touches every living soul. Today we have institutions, mind and body doctors, counselors, pain management specialists, advocates, drugs, massive industries all specified for the treatment of pain and sufferring in full scope.  There are political and social machines profitting from the generation of false pain.  How popular it is for people to make pain their excuse for failing to fulfill their responsibilities, not taking care of themselves, their families, their jobs. Some make their pain an excuse for poor behavior, even destructive behavior. Today, pain is exploited, creating burdens on family members and society at large. Real and imagined, pain and sufferring is part of living in a fallen world. 

His mother named him pain.  

There are translative inferences he lived with some sort of pain.  Whether a physical disability, mental anguish, or pain because of family trouble is not made clear in scripture.  Yet, the Bible says that he was more honorable than his brothers:

I Chronicles 4:9-10 NKJV

[9] Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” [10] And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested. -1st Chronicles 4.9-10 NKJV

"So God granted him what he requested."  

Who knows what kind of pain Jabez dealt with. His times were harder probably than anything we can conceive of today. But this snapshot of a story is so relevant for our time.  This is all that is said of Jabez in the Bible, but it is purposefully placed in a time of great uncertainty.  It is like an island of solace in a sea of all hell breaking loose.

He did not seek to exploit his pain.  Instead he made his goal to be an honorable man in the middle of it.  Counter culture much?  But he went a step further.  Jabez, this man of pain, had the audacity to ask God for more.  He was already elevated by his desire to be honorable and by his accomplishment of it.  That took decisive and radical perseverance.  His request beyond that was not for selfish gain, but the opposite.  How do I know it was not a selfish request?  Because God granted it. 

 "Expand my territory."  

In the land where he lived, expanding literal territory involved brutal violence to gain it,  unceasing vigilance to keep it, and back-breaking work to make it productive. If he was asking to have his land holdings expanded, he was asking, in essence, for more pain.  Figuratively, he was asking God to make him a better person.  Some commentators say he wanted to expand his influence.  Maybe.  But becoming a better person would naturally expand one's influence.

"...that You would keep me from evil,"

This guy definitely had a bead on something transcendent.  Merely, the desire to be honorable is honorable.  Somehow, this guy, in the middle of such a wild uncertain time, knew that going to the trouble of being honorable was something God held in high esteem.  We talk about God's love for us, but this fellow must have taken it personally-"God loves ME!"-to have the cajones to ask God to make him an even better person!  More than a request to keep evil from happening to him, the fulcrum of this request was not wanting to do anything malicious.  And the root of that chaste desire seems to be that he just did not want to be the cause of pain for anyone.

"...that I may not cause pain..."  

If we can live our days and not cause anyone pain, if we can stay away from anything and everything that would cause us to behave in a bad way, God's ear would be hard turned toward our hearts and our voices.  Sumarily, the lesson we can take away is we can accomplish any and all of this, if we can learn how to take our pain to God, and leave it with Him. 

" I'm trading my sorrows, I'm trading my pain, I'm laying them down for the joy of the Lord." -Darrell Evans

 Learn this and your territory will be expanded.  Make your request to God.  I bet His response will be, "As you wish."

Thanks, Jabez.  "Mommy's little pain."