I Hate Pain

I read a story by Tony Dungy called Quiet Strength. In there he talks about how he adopted a child who was born with the inability to feel pain. A gene was missing, who would have known. They wondered if something was wrong when they noticed the kid wouldn't cry after getting shots and eye drops.

I told my wife about this and she immediately thought how great it would be if I couldn't feel pain. I thought that was a great idea, but didn't think much more about it. Mainly because I've been relatively pain free for a couple weeks/months.

Well, today I woke up in pain. It feels like that racking pain I've had before on my left side. But I also had nerve like pain on my left side too. That's new. It's so frustrating and so I went for a little walk and talked to the Lord about it.

As usual, he helped me put everything in perspective. I tend to get myself so wrapped up in the symptoms or the pain or whatever it is, that I lose perspective. I suddenly become so engrossed, nothing else matters. Talking to the Lord is a great way to remind myself we should praise him, regardless of whether things are going well or bad.

I have a bad habit of only thanking him for good stuff and not also appreciating what comes from the bad stuff, like patience, mercy, grace, understanding, and peace. When times are tough, I learn the most.

But I do hate pain. I don't like having it, no matter what I might learn. But it could be worse. I might have been born with a gene that keeps me from feeling pain. Then I'd probably really hurt myself, although I wouldn't know it.

Such are the challenges of this fickle life. So thank you God for giving me the pain. Thank you for letting yourself be glorified in it. Help me to grow from this.