C.S. Lewis on Pain

I'm reading the Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis for a class, and wanted to share some insight from him on his own experience of pain, and why he thinks it is necessary.  It's actually quite insightful.  I highly encourage reading and then reflecting upon how we are in our own lives with God.  If you haven't read this book, you should.  It's brilliant. 

"I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headling in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whle pack of cards tumbling down.  At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happineesses look like broken toys.  Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times.  I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ.  And perhaps, by God's grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consiciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources.  But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys:  I am even anxious to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days.  Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear.  God has had me for but fourty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me.  Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over--I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed.  And that is why trulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless."   


Side note:  As Lewis talks about often in his book, do we only come to God when we are in need, as a last resort, or to avoid certain pains?  If so, reguardless, God, in His humility, still eagerly accepts us. Something to think about: when our lives are going well, and everything is as it should be, do we still need Him, or want Him?