The ‘Gift’ Nobody Would Ever Ask to Receive

Years ago, I reached a conclusion: “Pain wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t hurt so much.” Many people have experienced more pain than me, but I’ve had my share. Recovering from open-heart surgery was the worst, but even severe sore throats and smashed toes are no walk in the park. I’ve encountered enough pain to know it’s not something anyone seeks.

 

However, strange as it may seem, pain might actually be a gift, even though it’s doubtful anyone would put it on their wish list. How can we consider pain a “gift”? For starters, our bodies use pain as a signal that something is wrong. 

Chest pressure – which cardiologists regard as pain – was my first symptom that something was awry with my heart and its supporting arteries. My post-surgery pain served as a consistent reminder not to overdo as I worked through the long recovery process.

 

But it doesn’t take something as serious as heart problems or cancer for pain to take on the unlikely guise of a gift. Imagine stubbing your toe. Immediately pain sensors send signals to your brain alerting you that you’ve made undesirable contact with your living room coffee table. What if you didn’t feel your toe banging the coffee table and you stubbed it again…and again? Your initial bruise might turn into damage of much greater magnitude. 

 

This is a problem some people suffering from diabetes, leprosy, neuropathy, and other maladies face on a daily basis. If nerves become desensitized and can’t give painful notice of injury, the situation can become exacerbated to the point of requiring a trip to the emergency room.

 

Author Philip Yancey has spent much of his writing career exploring the subject of pain and its ramifications. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and The Gift Nobody Wants are just two of the books he’s written the deal with the topic. Much of his insight came from working with Dr. Paul Brand, who dedicated many years of his medical career to ministering to leprosy patients. 

 

In another of his books, Where Is God When It Hurts?, Yancey writes, “Pain is not God’s great goof. The sensation of pain is a gift – the gift nobody wants. More than anything, pain should be viewed as a communication network. A remarkable network of pain sensors stands guard duty with the singular purpose of keeping me from injury.”

 

Yancey certainly isn’t an advocate for pain, acknowledging it can cause misery whether short-term or long-term, especially for sufferers of diseases like crippling arthritis or terminal cancer. But he notes, “for the majority of us, the pain network performs daily protective service.” Then he quotes the late Dr. Brand who said, “Ninety-nine percent of all the pains the people suffer are short-term pains: correctable situations that call for medication, rest, or a change of a person’s lifestyle.”

 

Where does pain fit within God’s plan for his people? We can look at this from several angles. Jesus Christ was no stranger to pain. He suffered the emotional pain of being misunderstood as well as rejection. He suffered through hunger, thirst and temptation, as Hebrews 2:18 states: “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

 

The Lord endured the agony most of us have experienced, the pain of loss. Upon arriving at Bethany after His friend Lazarus had died and had already been in a tomb for four days, John 11:35 tells, “Jesus wept.”

 

Each of the four gospels recount the unimaginable pain and suffering Jesus went through, being tortured during a mock trial before being crucified and becoming the atoning sacrifice for our sins. This fulfilled a prophecy presented in Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.”

 

But what about us as Christ’s followers? Can’t God spare us from pain, much as a parent would desire to do for a beloved child? We’re told pain is part of what we might call a believer’s ‘job description.’ As the apostle Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).

 

Sometimes God allows His people to experience pain as part of His process for transforming them into the individuals He desires for them to be; to shape our character. One of these traits is humility, which Paul referenced when he wrote: 

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these great revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ …That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am we, then I am strong [in Christ]” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

 

No, pain is not something we seek. No reasonably minded person asks for it. But in our walk of faith, the Scriptures assure us that when God allows pain in our lives, He has a reason for it. It’s still true “that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

Perhaps in our painful times, short-term or long-term, our question should not be “Why?” but rather, “What?” What is the Lord seeking to teach us, to do in our lives – or through our lives?