Pain Is a Good Thing

As I have had time to reflect on a three week span of quite a bit of emotional and physical pain, I have come to a conclusion - pain is a good thing.

What first got me thinking this way was my broken finger. I injured my finger one Saturday while working on building a barn. I kept working, even long after the injury happened. When I finished for the day, I removed my glove to find a swollen and purple pinky. I thought something was probably wrong.

Sunday it was still hurting. A doctor or two even told me I should have it x-rayed soon. So Monday morning, I went and had an x-ray taken of my ailing appendage. It was definitely broken. I knew that, and I'm far from being anything close to even resembling a doctor.

I realized that without pain, I would never have known that something was wrong with my finger. The same thing goes for pain that is less physical. The death of a loved one - no matter how the death comes about - causes pain. We feel it because we know somewhere that something is wrong. The original plan was not one of death. Something went wrong, and now we must all face the pain of death.

Sin causes pain as well. Why does sin hurt us? It is not the intended plan. We choose to do something wrong, and later we feel the pain it causes. The pain might come instantaneous or it might come long down the road. Pain is coming, and it serves to remind us that somewhere along the way, something went wrong. Thank God for that reminder - that I have done something wrong, but He has done right enough to pay the price.