The gift of pain

Flinch.
Duck.
Pull back your hand

These are all natural reactions to the threat of pain.

No one wants to be hurt. So we avoid pain.. We deflect it. We ignore it. We mask it.

Pain is nothing new – it got its start in the Garden of Eden.


Photo by Scott Doolittle, used with permission

 The serpent was cursed to crawl along ground, dragging its belly on the shards of stone.
The woman was cursed, “multiplying your pain in childbearing.”
And the man had to till a cursed ground, “in pain you shall eat of it all your days.” Creation was cursed with thorns and thistles.

According to Paul, “Affliction is our destiny” because we have chosen to stand apart – to be separated from the world. “Indeed,” he says “All who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted.”


Pain is just part of the deal.

But we mask pain with drugs – a $100 billion a year industry.

We run from confrontation.
We hide from difficult conversations.
We refuse to deal with difficult subjects.

But isn’t there something we can learn in the pain? Should we actually embrace it?

I’ve got a head full of facts and figures, analogies and illustrations. But what good do they do me?  I love to observe and reflect. I’ve listened to 10,000 sermons, read a thousand books and sat through 100’s of teaching series.

But the most lasting lessons have been through the pain. I’m not sure I would volunteer to serve again through those spots, but in them I’ve learned about myself — my failures, my strengths. I’ve learned that honesty is the best policy — even when it hurts. I’ve learned that there is hope on the other side.

What lessons have you discovered – through the pain?