Laying back in a dentist’s chair more than once this past spring and summer, I have experienced pain as my dentist has given me local anesthesia shots to deaden the pain before working on one of my teeth. Yet, looking back over the year, it is not physical pain that has hurt me the most. Mental and emotional pain associated with shepherding as a pastor, has been far greater. Attempting to wisely lead as a pastor during this pandemic, has shown me that pain comes through painful words and painfully unexpected experiences. These painful experiences easily top physical pain.
Growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s, I knew the pain of seeing my dad experience heart attacks, many of them, from my age of 9 until I was 21, when God took Dad Home to heaven. That pain was mental and emotional beyond what I thought I could bear. When I was 56, I was with my mom six days until God took her Home. Preaching Mom’s funeral was very painful, but it was an honor I will never forget. Losing our parents is a terribly painful hurt that is not easily assuaged.
Traumas of all sorts fill us all with pain that we cannot easily forget or find ways to deal with. Dr. Paul Brand has written powerfully about the gift of pain. This incredible doctor specialized in treating Hansen’s disease, known as leprosy. This disfiguring disease, once thought incurable, is now curable with antibiotics. The major effect of leprosy is that it destroys the nerves and causes numbness. This numbness and the lack of any pain sensation in the limbs, leads to the loss of fingers, toes, hands, and feet.
During Dr. Paul Brand’s research, in the early days when the disease of leprosy was still considered incurable, there were no known antibiotic treatments. One evening as Dr. Brand was traveling by train on the coast of England, he was on a sabbatical from working with lepers. As he was getting ready for bed, he removed his shoes and socks. To his dismay and horror, he had no feeling in his heel. He rubbed the heel over and over. The numbness would not go away. To make sure, he took a pin out of his suitcase. He jabbed it hard into his heel. Blood came out of the puncture wound, but he felt no sensation of pain.
It was an awful moment for the good doctor. In fear, he spent most of the night lying awake, imagining his new life as a victim of leprosy. The next morning, the good doctor, who had helped so many lepers, sat up in bed. He decided to conduct one more experiment on himself. He took a pin and jabbed it hard into his heel. This time he cried out in unexpected pain. It hurt. Oh, it hurt. Thank God it hurt! It hurt so badly, but it was so wonderful. The numbness from the night before came after a long train ride along the English coast, when he had hardly moved. Only once had he gotten up to stretch his legs. The immobility had numbed his nerve endings in his heel.
From that day on, Dr. Paul Brand often spoke of “the blessing of pain” or “the gift of pain.” Most of us see pain as a curse, surely not a blessing. But there is a purpose for which God created pain. It is not always a blessing or a purpose that we can readily see. When pain strikes, it is comforting to know that God is right there. Recently, I have carried pain for others and pain I have experienced myself, both physical and spiritual pain. I don’t have physical or spiritual leprosy. Yet I have felt pain in my body, in my emotions and in my spirit. It hurts, but it is awesome to know that I still have those intense feelings in my soul, my spirit, and my body.
Callous souls can act without feeling and without love. Their wicked words, their obscene gestures, their livid anger, their seething wrath, their blistering false accusations, and their desire to hurt others, often make them totally incapable or unwilling to care about the pain they are inflicting, or to repent of the pain they have caused. God spare us all from losing our ability to feel pain, or to feel the pain of others. I have laid awake feeling the pain of others I love. I have repeatedly given the pain to God in prayer.
The “blessing of pain” is a gift of God we should celebrate. We need to remember Jesus lovingly and willingly took all our pain; He felt the guilt of all our sin on the cross. The pain Jesus endured was beyond intense. I will never quit being thankful for the pain Jesus endured to save me from my sin when He died on the cross for me. It was substitutionary pain — pain I deserve to suffer. I will never forget the pain He felt for me and took in my place at the cross.
Richard Carlson is the pastor of the Rock Springs Evangelical Free Church. Of his 52-plus years in ministry, he has pastored locally for the last 43 years.
