No More Pain
As one who suffers from chronic pain, I jumped at the opportunity of attending a two days a week for six weeks pain-management course. The course is designed for busted veterans like me. We learned about the physiology and psychology of pain. For example, pain doesn’t necessarily equal physical damage.
I found the course very
helpful. I had become pretty much the proverbial couch-potato, sitting in a
corner since retirement, reading, writing, drinking green tea and coffee during
the day, and watching news programs and movies with a glass of beer at night.
Rising from the couch to fetch another drink or whatever only reminded me of my
chronic pain as my lower back would jar.
“Mr Negativity” is my “pain”
name! Though my cup ought to runneth over, the half full glass always tends to
be half empty. I hadn’t expected any of the five other course attendees to be
Christians. Mr Negativity wasn’t disappointed. Though we had a lot of other things in
common, the inner loneliness, the glass half-emptiness, remained un-topped up.
I began to feel sorry for my classmates. A contradiction? A paradox, you ask?
Let me explain.
The course doesn’t promise you
“no more pain.” It only helps you to manage your pain. However, the difference
between my classmates and me, is that I believe the promises of the Bible, of
which “no more pain” is one of the many. Jesus took away all my pain,
suffering, and the anguish that goes along with it, when He endured eternal
torments as His Father poured His wrath on Him as He hung on that cross, taking
the punishment for sinners, such as me, who believe in His promises.
My classmates don’t know this
pain-relief. All they have is the here-and-now. I hear it in their speech. They
follow another belief system. They have a different worldview to me. They think
that death is pain’s escape hatch. They think that they evolved from slime.
They talk about lizard parts in our brains, and cavemen running away from
sabre tooth tigers. They live in a different world than me. I live in God’s
world with God. Clearly, they live in a world without God. Wow! I feel their pain!
It’s true! Pain doesn’t necessarily equal physical damage after all.
When I die, it’s “no more
pain” forever. When they die, their pain only increases. At the great
resurrection on the last day, we’ll all get our bodies back. Mine will be
completely renewed and pain free. There’s will be in pain worse than they ever
experienced before death.
So, dear reader, don’t feel
sorry for me in my present state of chronic pain. Rather, pity those who are
facing an eternity of torments because they don’t know Christ as their Saviour!
I have cast out the
fisherman’s net a few times as my heart goes out to my classmates. I may have
to be content just to sow seeds and pray that the soil is fertile and await God to
give the increase. Meanwhile, like Job I believe in God’s promises, “I know
that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my
skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall
see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart years within
me!” (Job 25:27).
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). I feel the pain leaving me already! Do you?
Click on the following link to find out more details for the Pain Management Program;
No comments:
Post a Comment