Dr. Paul Brand was the first physician to recognize that leprosy itself doesn’t kill people or cause the loss of fingers and feet. Leprosy injures the nerves so people lose their sense of touch. The lack of ability to feel pain is what kills them. When they cut a finger, they don’t feel it. The wound festers and gets infected. But they don’t have good medical care, and they don’t feel anything, so they don’t properly care for it. That’s why they lose parts of their body. Dr. Brand spent his life studying pain.
He wrote a book called “The Gift of Pain.” It’s the body’s built-in warning system that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. In his book, he said, “Few experiences in life are more universal than pain, which flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life.” It’s a great book. I would recommend you read it. Here are some excerpts from his book.
He also said, “The Londoners suffered gladly for a cause. The Indians expected suffering and learned not to fear it. The Americans suffered less but feared it more. Three different outlooks on a mysterious fact of human existence.”
“I am convinced that the attitude we cultivate in advance may well determine how suffering will affect us when it does strike.”
When you work hard in the garden, the blackberries thorns impale your hand, you fall and scrape your knee, and your hand gets blisters from the shovel. You ignore the pain and keep working, right? And afterward you admire your beautiful accomplishment.
But in the doctor’s office, when the nurse comes at you with a needle, you tense up, grit your teeth, and steel yourself against the intense pain that’s about to occur. Attitude matters.
Both emotional and physical pains are inevitable. You WILL have troubles and tragedies in this life. We think if we try hard enough, if we make enough money or make the right choices, we shouldn’t have problems. But that’s a lie. We ALL have pain – some have more than others, but no one escapes.
The good news is that God gives us a promise. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that ALL things work together for GOOD to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Bro. Ken Gurley talked recently about the gift no one wants but everyone needs. Some of the following is from him. Pain will help you or hinder you. It will draw you closer to God, or push you away. It will make you better or bitter. It will defeat you or develop you. You choose.
C.S. Lewis once said, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists on being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our consciences, but He shouts to us in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Six ways God uses pain to help us in our lives:
- To direct us. It motivates needed changes in our lives.
- To inspect us. People are like tea bags. If you want to know what’s inside them, just drop them in hot water. James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
- To correct us. When Stephen was a toddler I showed him the stove and told him not to touch it. It was hot. A couple minutes later I had my back turned and smelled something burning. I looked at Stephen, who stared at the floor with his hands behind his back. He was hiding his seared finger. He couldn’t just believe his Mom. He had to check it out. You learn more by being burnt than by being warned. Psalm 119:71 says, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.”
- To protect us. Joseph suffered slavery and prison for many years. What did he have to say about it? “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
- To perfect us. Struggles and adversity makes us grow. God is more interested in our character than in our accomplishments. Also, it teaches us compassion for others who are suffering.
- To bless us. Revelation 3:5 says, “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” White garments are the righteous deeds of the saints. Every day with every choice we make, we spinning the yarn and weaving the cloth for our eternal garments. They wove a crown of thorns for Jesus. With Adam, thorns became the curse of the earth. Jesus wore his painful thorns as a crown. Someday we will change our crown of thorns for a crown of glory that we will cast at his feet.
Enduring pain is like weight lifting. More weight = more strength. More pain = more strength. Whether it’s physical or emotional pain, let it push you towards God. Lean on His comfort. “Your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt.” Rick Warren
In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. By Graham Greene
Next are some words of wisdom from the Bible:
Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:23
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12-13
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:3-4
