Pain is Joy

                                                                          Pain is Joy

 

40 or so years ago, I was flat on my back after being thrown during a sparring session with my sensi and older Filipino gentleman around 45-50 years old. I hit the mat hard. Getting up groaning, he smiled and said Mr. Manny, Pain is joy. I did not get it right away, but he explained the concept. If you feel the pain, you are still alive to feel it, and if you can move, you will be okay, so deal with the pain and get up. My arrogance, fueled by my around 25 or 26 years old with some karate training, did not respect my teachers' skills as I should have. I was not careful. I approached the situation with a sledgehammer. He was using just the slightest redirection of my momentum to get me off my feet and on my back in a blur of motion. I learned my lesson that day. The subject today is pain.

            Pain is a teacher; it gives warning, establishes boundaries, and reinforces actions used to modify one's behavior. This is true of physical and or emotional pain. How often has the thought occurred, "Let's not do that again; that did not feel good?" Today, I got a painful warning while sitting in the dialysis chair. At the three-hour mark, I noticed, without warning, my ankles turning inward and cramping painfully. After seeing me struggle, the technician reduced the rate at which excess water was removed from my system. That pain was impressive. I have never seen an ankle turn so dramatically all by itself. Without that pain, I would not know the level of dehydration that I was suffering mechanically.

            That was physical pain. There is emotional pain. Having lived differently in different times, I found some of my good or bad decisions led to pain. I have felt loss, be it due to the passing of a friend or the consequences of bad choices and decisions I have made. I'm glad to say I'm not making that mistake anymore; however, sometimes I misstep and confuse things. What pain does is slow one down. It slows the response emotionally, meaning less apt to react with emotion when presented with something that does not seem right. Something that offends and those that would look to provoke just because it is a day that ends in the letter Y. I took a long time to get here in this essay, but here is where my head has been as of late. It might make some in our movement have a "clutch the pearls" moment, but I read, listen, and study many things that cross my curiosity threshold. Hebrews 12:2 For the joy set before me endured the cross disregarding the shame (ESV) and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. In the premise of this essay, I state, "Pain is joy." I have an internal problem with the megachurch concept: we should not be sick, poor, or unhappy. The Buddhists believe that life is suffering. Everything causes suffering, and one cannot do anything about it.

The Stoics believe suffering is part of the lives of those unable to handle emotions. The Shinto religion believes that suffering is not a form of punishment as much as it is a natural element of human existence. Guess what? They are all right in varying degrees. What is missing is the end of it all: Why do we do what we do as Christians? I accept the Stoic version with this difference: I always have someone with me to share the good times and the bad.  Isaiah 53 5, "But he was wounded for our transgressions he bruised for our iniquities. the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes, we are healed." We have an advocate who was wrongly accused, beaten, and put to death in one of the most painful ways humans devised. So by knowing that, not on a surface level but deeply in our spirit, we can endure tremendous hardship and pain, knowing that we have a God who has also done it.

Having spent a couple of hours on operating room tables, I approach it not with trepidation but accept it as the price of doing business. I live with the consequences of the "riotous living that I have to pay the fee for in this stage of my life. Do not get me wrong; I expect to be healed eventually, but I'm not waiting for a third party to intervene. I got into this situation and must take the appropriate steps to get to the other side of this challenge. I look to the challenge ahead of me, my wife, grandchildren, and family and get them set up for the time after me to be the most successful version of themselves they can make. To that end, I have chosen to associate with people with a spiritual walk stronger than mine, faith more robust than I have, and a witness I can look up to. I tell my grandsons this all the time. Your friends can lift you to their level. However, associating with people who have made choices that are not the best will also drag one down with them. I tell my grandson that if he hangs with four brilliant people, he will be the fifth; he will always rise to the level of your competition. Knowing this from the beginning will be beneficial to one's growth.