Pain

Heat

Summer is really here! The temperatures have risen. I am not a fan of the sweltering heat of the mid-year season. I find it especially uncomfortable. I have heard that much of our country is experiencing a heat wave. 

As uncomfortable as someone like me may find the heat, there is a point when the heat moves from merely being uncomfortable to being dangerous. The heat can do damage to the body even resulting in death. Because this is the case, people must recognize the danger and rightly deal with the pain that the heat is inflicting. In this post, I want to think about pain and what its purpose is in our lives.

Obstacle

The first thing that we should recognize is that pain can often be an obstacle to be overcome. If you decide to start a new exercise program and load your muscle groups with work that they are not accustomed to you will experience pain. The pain will make you want to quit, but if you are going to accomplish your goal of increasing strength and becoming more healthy then you must overcome the pain.

In this way pain is a barrier to the good things that need to happen in your life and this barrier must be overcome. Barriers are key to understanding the mission of gospel expansion in the world. If we never worked to overcome painful barriers then the gospel would never advance. But missionaries and believers who support them must sacrifice to the point of pain for the advancement of the gospel beyond these barriers.

Endurance

In Romans 5, Paul tells these congregations of believers in Rome, that as believers in Christ we rejoice even in our suffering because our suffering results in a chain reaction that produces hope. Now, the next step after suffering is endurance in this domino effect. Without suffering we would not learn that endurance that would give us the kind of mature character that should be the attribute of every genuine descendant of Abraham and David. But both of the terms “suffering” and “endurance” imply something hard, uncomfortable, or even painful that is in opposition to our growth in grace.

Warning

However, pain is not always something to be overcome or endured. Pain can also be a warning that something is wrong. The pain of touching something hot actually protects us from the destruction of our flesh. The pain of a heart attack can cause us to seek the medical attention that can save our lives. Even just the fear of pain can often keep us from making some risky, foolish decisions. 

Pain can also motivate us to make changes that we would not usually make. It can cause us to take necessary actions to improve our situation because we do not want to stay in the painful circumstances any longer. In this way pain actually assists us in our way toward holiness by motivating our transformation.

Certainly if the world were not infected with sin (Genesis 3) then we would not be afflicted with pain (Revelation 21:4). But in God’s gracious way even pain can serve for our ultimate good and His eternal glory!

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