Pain Hurts!!!

We have a skillet with a removeable rubber grip on the handle so you can use the skillet in the oven. This week we cooked some garden fresh yellow squash with slices of onion sprinkled in olive oil in that skillet. Shortly after it was removed from the oven, I was going to move it and without thinking I grabbed the hot handle without a pot holder. Ouch! It took a nano-second for me to let go. I put my hand under tap water and I was fine. Pain hurts but it helped me to let go!

Some years ago, I became aware of a rare condition that prevents people from feeling pain. It is called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP) and sometimes (CIPA with the inability to sweat called anhidrosis).

When I first heard that some people did not feel pain, I thought, “Wow, that would be great!” But the follow-up explanation was not so rosy. It is a very dangerous condition because there is a reason God gave us the ability to feel pain—it warns us that something is hurting us.

Those with CIP can have a dangerous infection or an internal sickness and not know it. They might suffer burns because they do not turn loose of a hot object. If they are stuck with a sharp object, they do not have that sharp retreat reaction most of us know. You get the picture.

In this life, we encounter a lot of suffering. Pain comes in many forms. There are physical pains, emotional pains, and even spiritual pains. It hurts!

A lesser pain may be called a discomfort. Discomfort is like a whispered warning while pain is a shout from a megaphone.

God will allow us to feel some discomfort so hopefully we will change course. If we continue on a destructive path, He will allow us to have some pain to persuade us to think twice before going further. The pain may even worsen if we homestead in the valley of misery. I am sure we all have felt the grievous pain of not listening to God and pursuing our own foolishness. I have an extra t-shirt from my participation if you need one.

Pain is a warning sign that we need to let go of something, change direction, or get some help.

After wallowing in the mud with the pigs, the prodigal son decided life would be better back at his father’s house even as a servant. Those who know the story, know that he was restored to his sonship. This story is a great analogy of a wandering, arrogant, and disobedient person returning with a repentant heart to God whose arms are wide open. (You can read the whole story in Luke 15:11-32.)

I am not sure what pain you may be experiencing today. It is real and I am not going to be dismissive and say your pain is a blessing, because it really hurts.

I have a prayer list of sick people for whom I pray. My heart often breaks for some who are suffering so bad for so long. If their pain is something I am personally acquainted with, I have even a greater empathy for them (and perhaps my prayer is a little more fervent for them.)

If you have any kind of pain today, I am sorry and I pray God heals you. Your pain may be from something you have no control over. Those pains are excruciating for a whole set of reasons.

Perhaps you have pain for self-inflicted wounds. They are especially painful for their own reasons as well. If you are carrying around a hot iron—drop it. If you have become friends with the pain of unforgiveness quit drinking the poison and hoping the other person will die. If you feel the pain of lost integrity, quit lying and build a future trust by being trustworthy and loyal.

Some folks live with spiritual CIP who no longer blush at their own sin but “having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2 NKJV). Some pains are ignored for the wrong reason.

Listen to your pain and get the relief or help you need. Repent (change your mind and change your actions) and ask Jesus to forgive you.

As much as I dread going to the dentist, if I have a toothache, his office is a welcome sight. The pain urges me toward relief. Get some help!

“Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing./ For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10 NKJV).

I pray you get relief from your pain. Jesus loves you!

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt