Ponderings on Pain

Pain can take many forms in our lives.  We are all familiar with the late night toe-stubbing type of physical pain.  Scrapes, stitches, broken bones, bruises and other assorted ouches that we encounter in life starting from the moment we try walking.  The body has an amazing ability to heal these hurts.  There are other types of pain that are not so easily overcome.  I am not sure if it is possible to separate mental pain from emotional pain, but there seem to be distinctions.  Painful memories and the repetition of negative thoughts might be categorized as mental pain.  Of course these things often result in emotional turmoil... feelings of guilt, regret, sadness, anger etc.  There are so many ways that we try to deal with these types of pains.  Denial, avoidance, addiction, prayer, counseling etc. 

In one of my counseling classes the question was asked, "is it a counselor's job to alleviate pain?"  I don't think so... at least not always.  Pain can be a good thing.  Pain tells a person something is wrong.  Pain reminds you to aim the hammer better.  Pain screams, "GET YOUR HAND OFF THE HOT STOVE DUMMY!"  Mental and emotional pain is a way for us to know things are not as they should be.  The world is not as it should be.  There are places in scripture where pain was not avoided, but fully experienced.  There are psalms of lament that express the deepest statements of sorrow and pain.  And, there is the book of Lamentations.

 These are not emo writings of ancient people.  The literature of lament was cathartic.  It was God allowing His people to pour out their hurts.  It is an admission that the world is not as it should be.  Statements like, "my heart melts like wax" and "my bones are crushed" are expressions of pain.  The pain was not denied, avoided, drowned in a bottle or alleviated by slick counseling.  It was fully experienced.  Once pain is fully realized what else can it accomplish?  Once the person realizes that they have faced their pain and survived then they can move on.  Therefore, the expressions of lament all end in a very similar fashion.  Typically the writer acknowledges God's soverignty... that God is God in good times and bad.  And then there is a hope statement.  Despite the deep, sorrowful nature of these writings there is always a hopeful ending.  Pain happens- but it does not last forever.