Pain

Pain is regarded by most people as something to be avoided at all costs.  No one likes pain, so the word is generally used in modern culture to denote all sorts of unpleasantries.

Several of my friends, and my wife, have suffered lately, so it is on my mind.  Pain is often bad, but it can be a great motivator.  In fact I speculate that G^d created pain particularly as a powerful motivator/demotivator.

Pain is bad, but the motivation it supplies is good.  Pain is what tells us to move our hand, quickly, off a hot stove top, or grill, or propane torch. Pain tells us we are doing damage to our heel, or our toes.

Pain tells us to seek a remedy to the problem.  Too often, we seek relief from the pain with a pill, an injection, or a topical potion without resolving the cause.  In fact I am guessing this is the rule more than the exception.

G^d created pain as a method of getting our attention.  “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  C.S. Lewis

Pain avoidance is also part of our training and habit.  As children we learn, or some of us do, that some actions bring pain, and we learn to avoid those actions.

G^d has used this principle in the lives of Moses, David, Solomon, Samson, and me.

Of course the ultimate pain is that pain that never ends, that never has a prospect of ending.  But keep this in mind:

“But we are to keep our wits and rejoice with gladness because this life is as close to hell as we will ever get.”                                                   M Driscoll