HE WAS JUST A LITTLE CHILD, perhaps 5 or 6 years old, walking beside his mother in the grocery store. When he stopped to watch someone pass by, she accidentally bumped into him with her shopping cart, catching the side of his head. He looked up at her in surprise, with his hand on the injured site. It had been a slight bump, so no tears were involved. A sympathetic hug from Mom with words of sympathy seemed to soothe any painful discomfort.
WHY PAIN?
Our bodies are wired with specialized nerves called nociceptors, which have the ability to detect damage to tissue and instantly relay the information via the spinal cord to the brain. If you touch a hot stove, before you have a moment to even think about what you should do, you experience an instant, automatic contraction of the muscles and your hand jerks away in response, thus limiting further damage. The muscle contraction response occurs spontaneously, even before the message reaches the brain, which then alerts us to the unpleasant sensation of pain.
Some people have disruption to the signal system caused by nerve injury or disease. Because she is a diabetic with decreased sensation of feeling to her feet, Ella1 was unable to tell how badly she was being burned as she walked barefoot on the hot cement around the swimming pool. Only when her feet started to bleed was it brought to her attention that something was terribly wrong. The severe burns to the soles of her feet required aggressive medical intervention to keep infection from occurring during the slow healing process.
As prevalent and undesirable as pain is in life on this earth, it can also be a blessing. Our body’s ability to feel pain can be seen as most helpful in our pursuit of good health. Whether being bumped by a shopping cart, stubbing our toe on a sharp rock, being stung by a bee, closing the door on a finger, feeling the throbbing of an infected tooth, or experiencing discomfort from any internal area of the body due to injury or disease, pain is the 911 call from the brain that there is a problem that needs attention. Ignore that call, and there’s a chance of further complications that can affect health, functioning ability, quality of life, and perhaps even longevity. We begin recognizing early in life what can cause us pain and how to avoid that from happening.
There are situations in which pain ceases playing a protective role and becomes chronic, a disease in itself, as in cases such as rheumatoid arthritis or migraine headaches.
THE BRAIN AND HEART
Our brain, besides identifying and orchestrating our physical response to environmental stimuli, also takes in and records everything that touches us in life—the things we study and learn, our interaction and relationships with others, and various experiences bad or good—all of which have the ability to generate an emotional response. In songs, poetry,
and Scripture the heart is often referred
to as the center of our emotions. We have the ability to feel joy, sadness, excitement, love, and, yes, pain too. Emotional pain, or heartfelt pain, is a psychological response from nonphysical sources, which can include:
1. Hurtful words and rejection
2. Grief and sadness
3. Remorse and guilt
4. Anxiety and fear
5. Discontent and anger
We tend to downplay emotional pain, giving it less regard than physical pain. However, prolonged emotional pain can have a detrimental effect on both physical and mental health. Functional body responses (which may have no identifiable physical cause) to unresolved emotional pain could include headaches, muscle pains, upset stomach and intestinal problems, tiredness, sadness, depression, withdrawal, changes in personality, and decreased interest in activities of daily living.
“The relation that exists between the mind and the body is very intimate. When one is affected, the other sympathizes.” The Ministry of Healing, p. 241
As a happy young man and good student, John had one goal: become a Marine. In the Marines he thrived and excelled, finishing at the top of every class, including flight school, where he became a Cobra attack helicopter pilot. John experienced several traumatic events in his career, including the loss of eight close friends in training accidents, a vehicle collision in which the other driver was killed, and his deployment to Iraq, where he flew 75 combat missions in just a few months. He arrived home from that assignment tired, thin, easily irritated, anxious, and impatient, with no interest in the company of family and friends. Despite his wife’s urgings to seek professional help, within a few weeks John had ended his life by suicide. His unresolved buildup of grief drove his focus to ending his terrible emotional pain. More attention needs to be given to maintenance of good mental health, especially in professions that almost require emotional distancing from experiences of trauma, suffering, and death of others.
THE GOOD NEWS
There will be an ultimate and forever end to all pain. A most happy day is coming, and it’s coming soon, when there will be no more pain and tears. There will be no more need of pain, either physical or emotional, as warning and protector. In heaven we won’t find sharp stones that hurt our toes, bees that sting, teeth that ache, hurtful words, death of friends and loved ones, sickness or accidents or trauma or harm. All will be peace, loveliness, and endless joy, for God, who will then live with us, has promised His faithful children: “He will wipe away all their tears, and there will be no more death, or sadness, or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4, emphasis supplied).2 “There will be no harm or hurt in all of God’s kingdom” (Isaiah 11:9).
I’m so longing for that wonderful day. Aren’t you? For now, know most assuredly that He loves and cares for you during your life’s journey in this sin-infested, potentially dangerous, and often pain-causing world. His promises are for real, and they are for you.
1 Name has been changed.
2 Bible passages are from The Clear Word.
INFORMATION SOURCES:
Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1905).
Ellen G. White, Heaven (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 2003), p. 139.
Jennifer Ashton, M.D., Life After Suicide (New York: William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2019), pp. 118-136.
www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/145750#causes
www.pfizer.com/news/articles/the_good_the_ bad_and_the_strange_of_physical_painpsychcentral.com/blog/how-to-deal-with-emotional-pain#in-the-moment-techniques
www.lakesidechiro.com.au/blog/emotional-causes-of-pain
