While on the Race I’ve been to the doctor 18 times.
That’s a little ridiculous if you ask me, considering I go anywhere between one and two times a year at home.
I figured I should probably write a blog about a few things I’ve learned about suffering and healing and everything in between.
- Pain is temporary, but only in light of eternity.
Pain and suffering are promises, just as much as grace and peace are. After the fall in Genesis, God said to the woman “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing” and to the man “cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:16-17). God promised suffering because sin equals suffering, every time. Diseases, injuries, mental health issues- all are results of sin. In the garden there was none of that. But we got kicked out of the garden, and anyway you want to rewrite the story, we will always get kicked out of the garden. Isaiah then goes on to prophesy the sufferings of Christ, and the New Testament then calls us to share in the sufferings of Christ as they are inevitable (Philippians 1:29-30, 2 Timothy 1:8-9, 2 Corinthians 1:5-7). All of this to say that PAIN WILL COME, because pain is a promise. Pain will continue to come throughout our lives, and pain on earth is “temporary” in a sense that yes, your cold will clear up and your broken bone may mend. But this does not indicate a hypothetical completion of pain. Pain will last our entire lives, sometimes the same pain will last our entire lives. People get cancer that kills them, people have bad backs until they die, people struggle with depression their entire lives. But the good news is PAIN IS TEMPORARY. When we pass from this earth onto the next, pain will come to a halt. Pain will NOT last forever because we have the promise of eternal life, free of sin and suffering. Revelation 21 describes the what the new heaven and new earth will hold for us- “They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He will make all things NEW, without pain and without suffering, praise God.
- Google is only worth something AFTER the appointment.
WebMD is not a doctor, and no your headache does not mean that you are going to die of brain cancer. But, when you are in a foreign country and they prescribe you some antibiotic you’ve never heard of, it’s wise to give it a quick Google search. These doctors are not your primary care physicians- they don’t know if you’re on other medications, they don’t know what allergies you have, sometimes they don’t even ask you your name until you pay at the end. So keeping this in mind: check for drug interactions, check for side effects, check for common brand names you may have heard of before. These things are really helpful when they can’t be communicated through a language barrier, and can prevent unexpected reactions.
- Communication is important, no one knows you better than you.
Ok, that’s not true, God knows you better than you. But he still likes to hear it from you. Every one else HAS to hear it from you. Doctors are not mind-readers and friends are not psychics. The only way to get help that you need is by asking for it. My squad leader’s Life Rule Number 3 is that adults always ask for what they want/need. The more I think about it, babies cry and have everyone guess what they need. Children simply state how they’re feeling and expect others to fix it, and teenagers try to fill every need on their own- losing the capability to communicate. Adults, however, always ask for what they want and what they need. When you want advice on a situation, you have to ask for it. When you need to borrow a couple of bucks, you have to let them know that you don’t have enough. When your toe is throbbing and walking feels impossible, you have to communicate that you need someone to bring you dinner and refill your water bottle. Communication is really just a means to reach understanding. Once people understand that you need something, they are happy to help. But if they don’t understand what you need or that you need anything at all, you will never get what you need. For me, that means communicating that I have a low pain tolerance and need more pain medicine, or communicating that I’m prone to ear infections and want to go to the doctor even if it just looks like a cold. In medicine and in life, I’m a BIG fan of communication.
- Ignorance is not always bliss, but distraction can be.
If you try to ignore your throbbing wound, it’s possible it will get infected and things will only get worse. If you try to ignore a feeling of loss, it’s possible that pushing down your emotions will only make things worse. Ignorance can look like a lack of self-awareness, and a lack of self-awareness often makes things worse. So no, ignorance is not always bliss. But if you’ve already addressed the issue, you’ve already processed the emotion, you’ve already taken the pain medicine, you’ve already dealt with it to the best of your ability, then there’s no point in dwelling on it. Speaking from experience, crying on the floor because you’re in pain doesn’t help you get out of pain. Tell someone, go play cards with friends, learn to play an instrument, watch movies, paint; find something to take your mind off of it.
- Anger and frustration are completely valid, try channelling it towards the enemy.
Life isn’t fair. It just isn’t. We do everything right and it still doesn’t always work out for us. For example, sometimes we do everything we can and we still don’t get the job. We shower everyday and still get head lice. We take every precaution and still get in car wrecks. We come to the doctor 4 times and follow their instructions to a T and still get an infection. That sucks. That’s not fair. Angry tears and frustrated groans are valid. Our anger, however, can be easily misplaced. Yelling at God only harms us and our words have the power to change our heart posture. Don’t get me wrong, God wants to hear our authentic emotion and loves you through your bitterness with him. But do not forget that our God is a God of empathy and compassion, he is not the enemy. The enemy is the enemy. Satan brought sin, Satan brought pain. Satan came to steal, kill, and destroy. Instead of wasting our energy in anger at ourselves or at God, let’s use that anger and stomp the snake back into the ground with it. Let’s allow our anger to become righteous anger at the injustice of our broken world, and our frustration to become passion for redemption. Send demons back to hell in Jesus’ name, cast out spirit’s of infirmity with authority, and flip tables that are not aligned with the Word, fueled by a fire that is righteous anger.
- It’s ok to be in pain, after all no pain means no gain.
In a much more biblical sense, He said, “ ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). And that’s the facts. We are weak, we have pain. Remember pain is a promise!? But this I ask- How much stronger is the swimmer that practices in drag suits? How much faster is the runner that practices with ankle weights? In the same way I ask, How much stronger is the faith of one who can abide with Christ in the midst of pain? If we can rest in his grace, our pain is no longer weakness but a display of God’s strength. There is joy to be found in our shortcomings because it means that through the Spirit of God living inside of us, we have NO weakness. We lack no good thing. So when hard times come and we choose abidance and dependence, how much easier is it to abide and depend when simpler seasons come? How much sweeter are the mountain tops when we’ve already found joy in the valleys? So embrace pain, don’t let it embrace you. Our reaction in pain is to hold our breath until it’s over, but we can’t hold our breath forever. So let your pain amplify your need for God and multiply the work that you allow him to do through you.
Am I the best at taking my own advice? No. I’m really good at pouting, I’m really good at exaggerating my pain, and I’m really good at complaining.
But there’s always grace and always room for growth.
Thanks God that I am healed and whole, despite what the world says.
