Is pain a gift?

If I held in my hands the power to eliminate physical pain from the world,” said Dr. Paul Brand, “I would not exercise it.” Paul Brand was one of the 20th century’s top researchers who studied pain. He made that remark out of his fascination with the whole subject of pain, the result of working with lepers in India.

While leprosy is rarely fatal in itself, the horrible effects of the disease produce disfigurement and often the loss of limbs. Even worse, lepers experience the centuries-old social stigma attached to the disease, separating them from their loved ones or neighbors. In Old Testament days, the person afflicted with leprosy had to leave the city and live outside in a hovel with other lepers, crying out, “Unclean, unclean,” when anyone approached them.

Dr. Brand, through his research, has proven that it is not leprosy which causes the disfigurement that leaves a victim with a claw-like club for  hand or foot, eventually leading to amputation. A leper, who cannot feel pain, burns his hands or feet unknowingly, or walks on raw wounds which he cannot feel. Eventually, Dr. Brand concluded that pain is not a curse, but a great benefactor to humankind and a gift from God, not a curse, which allows us to know what needs to be done when we hurt.

Our culture today, however, has little tolerance for pain. We thank God for the benefits of medical science that can numb the pain our bodies feel. Yet Brand was right. We are the losers when we fail to listen to our pain, when we don’t strive to understand why we hurt and what we have done. We should thank God for the gift of pain.

Used with permission from Guidelines Philippines, Inc. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, please write to Box 4000, 1280 Makati City, Philippines or e-mail address [email protected]. You may also visit our website at www.guidelines.org.