Usefulness of Pain

I held the prescription bottle up to the light to view the level of its contents.  Getting pretty low.  A sense of dread filled me as I considered the inevitable increase in pain if I stopped using this miracle drug.  I hadn't wanted to reorder it.  Had hoped that by the time it ran out the painful season would have passed.  


When difficult pain is present, there is a heightened tendency to focus on oneself.  It becomes difficult to think of anything else.  Pain produces the anticipation of more pain, which causes us to think about the pain and become unable to concentrate on anything other than the overwhelming desire for the pain to just go away.  I call  it "Pain-induced self-centeredness".  It is never good or profitable to be self-centered.  We are all that way anyway, by our sinful nature, but it becomes enormous when physical pain is unrelenting.  Tears come at times, and we can wallow in a lake of self-pity.  


How utterly useless this is!  We feel so justified in complaining about our pain.  It's easy for us to do this, and others will usually agree that our misery is understandable, considering our painful circumstances.  This sympathetic reaction to our pain may be, for the moment, gratifying; but it only encourages us to continue wallowing.  

There are some good things to understand about pain....it can be a very excellent warning system, telling us that certain parts of our body have a problem.  It is helpful in diagnosis.  Complaining about what God has given us is at the very least, ungrateful.  At its root is selfishness.  It is so easy to justify our whining behavior when we really are in considerable pain.


What could be the spiritual/emotional value of pain?  Well, for me, in dealing with the daily pain I have with arthritis, I try to use it as a signal to focus on other things - primarily to focus on GOD.  I remember that all pain, no matter how brief or lasting, cannot extend past this life.  It's good to join Job in saying/thinking "Shall I accept good from God and not trouble?"  We know from God's word that in heaven there will not be even the memory of having had pain.  How wonderful that is to look forward to!  So, Pain Causes Us to Be Less Fond of our Earthly Bodies, and long more and more for heaven, where "every tear will be wiped away."  By whom?  By God himself.  


The pain I have is usually quite manageable, with the help of alternating anti-inflammatories with more serious pain medication.  At times, I don't need the pain medication; the anti-inflammatory is enough!  Those are what I call "pain-free" days.  It's still there, but I'm so used to it, that when it is at its low ebb, it seems to be gone, unless I think about it.


Ah.  Think about it. Very often, this is a big part of the problem -- we think about it too much.  So much better and more fruitful to pick up my Bible and read God's word.  Better to open a book and read the spectacularly-expressed words written by the Puritans, hundreds of years ago.  


To the heart that Christ has changed, pain creates in us an automatic empathy with others who have various types of pain.  We become more compassionate and interested in the problems of others.  It is always a good thing to take our minds altogether off ourselves and onto others.  


Since I live alone, I have realized how easily I can become depressed.  And what is depression at its root, if not total self-absorption? When there is no one else here in my home to look at, talk to, interact with, I can go to my default of looking at myself.  So, when I am home it is important to occupy myself with doing things and thinking about things other than ME.  


So much more can (and has been) said about this subject.  Wonderful books have been written which are far more insightful and interesting than the words I have written here.  But it seemed good today, in a time when I have a minimum amount of pain, to write some of my own thoughts about it.  


As more than one wise person has said, "DON'T WASTE YOUR PAIN.  USE IT!"