Pain relief is a wonderful thing. When we are hurting, the cessation of pain helps us enormously and the advances in modern medicine are embraced by all who can see the benefits pain relief brings.
But there are things we must also consider about pain which are not so universally liked or accepted. Pain is God’s warning system (His ‘megaphone’, as C. S. Lewis puts it) to us. It alerts us to actual or possible damage to the body. Those who suffer from leprosy, for example, feel no pain, but the result can be loss of limbs, for they can be burned without feeling it. Nerve damage which prevents us feeling pain may lead to all kinds of actual tissue damage which goes unnoticed until damage is irrevocable.
Pain can, therefore, have benefits, even though it is not pleasant. It is a warning system which alerts us to problems. Our attention is then focussed on solving (healing) the problem, not simply removing the pain.
Pain relief can, at times, simply mask the problem. It’s much easier at times to pop a pill than to solve a complex physical problem, and there are, of course, complex physical problems (like late-stage cancers) which cannot be cured, and pain relief and palliative care are needed then.
But so often, pain relief is our first response to all problems, because we are averse to pain. No right thinking person embraces pain as a friend. Sometimes, however, we need to be prepared to look for the cause and not simply treat the symptom.
Life has many problems, including things that cause enormous emotional pain. The breakdown of relationships, guilt over sin, abuse, bereavement and so on are things which bring heartache and pain into our lives. When we love, we are vulnerable to pain and to loss.
Our instinct is to deny the pain or to suppress it. Doctors give us tranquillisers to numb the pain. Such things may well have short-term benefits in helping us to survive those waves of excruciating pain which rob us of breath and leave us gasping for air, unable to function at all. But as long-term solutions, they are not really helpful, because they leave us with untreated causes.
God does not offer pain relief per se. He offers healing. That healing may not always instantaneous. The pain may not go away immediately, for God works to sort out the root problems in our lives. He is not anywhere near as concerned with short-term solutions as we are. This can be extremely hard to bear. The psalmists frequently cry ‘How long?’ because they know all about pain and anguish and suffering and sorrow.
Emotional heartache is every bit as painful as physical pain and tends to last much longer too. Grief, whilst natural, is extremely painful. But for our long-term mental health, we need to face the pain and find God’s healing rather than expecting a pill (or platitude) to cure all our ills. God’s solution is to walk with us through the pain, bringng the healing balm of His presence and His sufficiency to our ‘light and momentary’ troubles (which to us are far from light or momentary.) There are no quick fixes to the pain of the heart. There are no words which can be plastered over gaping holes, no simple solutions to heartache and grief. But God’s presence breathes life and health and healing into us and we are revived and strengthened for the ongoing journey – wounded, scarred, broken, but somehow also made strong in the broken places (see Heb 11:34).