Is Pain Really a Problem?

C. S. Lewis wrote a book called, The Problem of Pain. Pain is a great problem but it also is a great time of learning. This problem isn’t referring to what is wrong with pain, but the depth of pain. A good life, or the abundant life, does not mean a pain free life. And when we do face pain and suffering, we can take comfort in what the Lord says in Psalm 34:18, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

There are many books today that promise to cure your pain with a checklist or by simplifying your life.  These books do everything except acknowledge the pain that you are going through. Additionally, these books divert your attention away from the source, so the pain comes back ten times stronger later on.

“We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
–Romans 5:3-5

Pain is a sensitive subject whether we are talking about physical or emotional pain. For some of us, this pain may be a result of an accident or maybe you are dealing with emotional pain. Those are deep wounds that need to be dealt with and shouldn’t be left until later when you have more time, because the truth is, you will never have time for pain. Our society today has mastered the idea that we can schedule things into our lives.

I am sure we can all agree that we want pain banned from our lives forever. Often we are in such a rush to get cured, that we forget about the healing that takes place in the midst of the pain. We forget that healing takes time and cannot be put on a time schedule.

Pain is not an easy subject to talk about in today’s world because pain and suffering are getting increasingly worse in everyone’s lives. However, pain can be a very beneficial thing.  It reassures us of three important things:

1)  We need help–we can’t do life alone.

2) We need a real cure and not a bandaid fix!

3)  God will use this pain for good.

“This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
–John 9:3

Books are great tools to help us understand more and acquire knowledge. But the Bible is the only book that offers a real cure.

What pain are you dealing with right now? How have you sought healing?