Pain As A Necessity

Pain is like an alarm clock we didn't set. It is our body alerting our mind to something that requires attention, repair, care, or maybe even replacing. If you type the word "Pain" into a search engine you will come across thousands of links, definitions, symptoms, causes, and remedies. While Pain is seemingly a negative word it isn't always so. For women, one of the most physically painful things they will experience is that of child birth. I believe most women will also tell you the most joyful thing they have experienced is child birth. Pain is a necessity. As much as it disheartens me to admit it. With out pain alerting us to life hindering or even threatening issues might go unnoticed. I think the same is true of our emotional, mental, and spiritual "pains".


For those that keep up with my blog you know that there's been a lot of introspect, evaluation, and revelation during this time in my life. Yesterday after a long and rough work out, a little too late I realized I had aggravated my RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis). I'm not sure if I pushed too hard, didn't stretch enough or drink enough water, either way the damage was done. After I took pain relievers and applied topical aid, I laid in bed consumed by my pain. For those unfamiliar with RA, just to give you an idea, when it is at it's at it's worse my joints are similar to that of the "Michelin Man". The aggravated joint(s) instead of working with my body to heal are instead working against itself. It's a type of auto immune disease a person is born with. Most days, at my age it isn't a issue, but when it is I sure do slow down quick. As I did my best to lay perfectly still and let the anti-inflammatory do it's job I meditated on all the different kinds of pain a person can go through. If at that moment my body was telling my mind "something is wrong, fix it!", what are all other expressions of pain saying ? I think of painful break ups, rejections, failures, etc. Why does it hurt so much ? When someone or something causes us pain, is that pain trying to tell us that "something is wrong, fix it"?

For me what I've decided after all this thought is that if it's causing too much pain then something isn't as it should be. In my life it applies not only to physical, but mental, emotional and spiritual. The pain is telling me that something in or around me needs some specific attention if I want the pain to lessen or leave. And indeed it is in my control to lessen or relieve some of the pains in my life. I encourage you to evaluate whatever "pain" consumes your thoughts. Evaluate it through the idea of  the pain alerting your mind to something that isn't as it should be and be brave enough to treat it with the proper care it deserves.

Could pain and should pain be avoided ? I don't think so.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us that "To every [thing there is] a season,

and a time to every purpose under the heaven;".