Pain---Part of Life

Good morning.  I usually peruse my Facebook page each morning to catch up on posts from my friends.  Sometimes I just scroll a lot, but sometimes I stop and read what someone posts.  A couple of mornings ago I was scrolling, but stopped at a post by one of my friends (I’ll call her Amanda) who has experienced a lot of painful medical issues in her relatively young life…issues that for most of us would sorely tempt us to just check out from life and living.  Amanda posted a quote from a mental health outlet about living with chronic pain.  The last sentence of the quote was, “A chronic pain patient can function with a pain level that would incapacitate any other person.”

One of Amanda’s Facebook friends posted a reply to her post.  In that reply, she told a short story of her own regarding pain, then said, “Pain just becomes a part of life.”

I had to stop my scrolling for a time and just reflect on both Amanda’s post and the reply of her friend.  On the one hand, I wanted to totally agree with them.  I think Amanda is a stronger, tougher woman than pretty much anyone else I know.  Dealing with pain has been her lot in life for decades.  And her friend is spot-on regarding living with pain.  On the other hand, I wanted to say, “No, it shouldn’t be this way.”  People shouldn’t have to live with chronic pain that would incapacitate most others.  We have doctors.  We have research facilities.  We have medicines.  It shouldn’t have to be this way.  Yet, it often is.

Everyone has experienced pain of some sort in their lives.  Whether physical, emotional, mental, or a combination of those, we all are susceptible to pain.  It’s just part of who we are and how we are made.  Some pain is chronic…that is, it is pain that is long-lasting.  It defies attempts to relieve it.  It just stays with us over the long haul.

Why it is that we humans have to deal with pain and suffering is a question that over the ages has never been adequately answered.  Especially for those of us who believe in a loving God who cares for His creation, we, like Job of the Old Testament, long for answers to the problem of pain and suffering.  Those answers never seem to come, however, and we are left with the question marks that never get erased.

“Pain just becomes part of life.”  That may be the best answer we will receive in this life.  It certainly is true, and it also is universal.  We don’t often know why we as humans have to deal with the things that cause us pain, whether physical, mental, or emotional.  We just know it’s part of life and living, and how we choose to deal with it reflects who we are.

The apostle to the Gentile people in the New Testament, Paul, tells of a “thorn in the flesh” that he had, and wanted God to remove it for him.  I don’t know if it was a literal thorn…it probably was not.  It probably was some other ailment that bothered him in a chronic way.  Yet God did not remove it from him, telling Paul instead that, “My grace is sufficient for you.  My power is made perfect in weakness.”

Whatever that means, and whatever that means for we who battle pain every day, we know that “Pain just becomes part of life,” and we are not at all alone in our dealing with it.

I don’t know whether you battle chronic and constant pain or not.  Many of us do, and don’t let on to anyone else that we are in that battle.  Yet this is just one more reason for us to be kind to others…to be understanding and helpful.  Being kind and understanding seem to be little things and sometimes not of great importance.  But we often don’t know what the person we are dealing with is going through at the moment.  We don’t, and can’t understand their pain.  But we can be compassionate and kind.  “Be kind one to another; tenderhearted, forgiving one-another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”  Make this your go-to from today forward.  Blessings.