PAIN, PURPOSE OF

“There is an ancient Chinese philosophy which says: ‘To be dry and thirsty in a hot and dusty land—and to feel great drops of rain on my bare skin—ah, is this not happiness? To have an itch in the private parts of my body—and finally to escape from my friends and to a hiding place where I can scratch—ah, is this not happiness?’ Pain and pleasure are inextricably linked. The pleasure would not exist, or least be recognized, if it were not for pain” (Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978], p. 46).938

Pain can serve a definite purpose in our lives.

Dr. Paul Brand of Carville, Louisiana, one of the world’s foremost experts on leprosy, describes how “leprosy patients lose their fingers and toes, not because the disease can cause decay, but precisely because they lack pain sensations. Nothing warns them when water is too hot or a hammer handle is splintered. Accidental self-abuse destroys their bodies.” (Cited by Philip Yancey in “Pain: The Tool of the Wounded Surgeon,” Christianity Today, March 24, 1978.)939

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, and shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain [New York: Macmillan, 1978]).940