Why is my path unending and my wound grievous and incurable? (Jeremiah 15:l8a) “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed?

When you have a headache, you take aspirin. Have a cold? Take decongestant Allergies? There’s medicine for that, too. Muscle aches? Rub cream on it. Upset stomach? Take the pink stuff.

No matter what your problem is, there’s a way to get rid of the symptoms and relieve the pain… Walk down the aisle at a store and you’ll realize how important pain relief is to people.

We’re so stuck on getting rid of pain and suffering that we’ll do anything to get rid of it. That’s why there’s so much medicine available. Companies spend huge amounts of money researching ways to make suffering easier. Newer, faster, better, more powerful ways to make our cold symptoms go away, or our headaches hurt less.

How weird would people think you are if you said, “Nah… I’ll live with the headache.,.” People would wonder why you’d do that.,. Because our first reaction when people say they’re hurting is… “Take something for that…”

Can you think of any situation where pain is actually considered a good thing? How about for people who play sports? Muscle pulls and broken bones are obviously not a good thing.

But how often, when you’re doing exercises or playing a sport after you haven’t played for a while do your muscles ache?

It’s part of the process of getting back into shape. If you aren’t tired and your muscles aren’t sore, you didn’t push yourself hard enough… No pain, No gain!

Embrace Pain?

If you’re breathing, there is pain in your life. It may be physical pain but you might be struggling with other things… You don’t have any money, your friends all bailed on you, school is hard, your parents fight all the time and you hear it, you can’t afford the really nice clothes everyone else has… Whatever.., The point is, you’re hurting… And you just can’t figure out why God is putting you through all this! It’s not fair! Why do you have to suffer? You complain, cry, whine… Maybe even pray But God just isn’t letting up. The bad stuff keeps happening.

There are so many places in the Bible where people talk about hard situations they’re going through… They complain, they cry, they suffer… They even pray sometimes.

They call out to God for help…They ask God to relieve their suffering. “Come on, God!

How about some pink stuff and an aspirin to make my suffering go away!” People have been suffering for thousands of years… It seems worse to us, but it probably seemed like the worst thing to them, too.

The reason athletes say, “No pain, no gain” is because they know that there are good things beyond the pain of today. The aches of today make them more fit.

They hold on to the idea that if they push themselves today, there will be good times, victories, in the future! They embrace the pain of pushing themselves…

If we didn’t feel any pain in our lives, how would we know how great we have it, how much God loves us when we feel his blessings! If we don’t suffer through some bad times, we have nothing to compare the good times to. See?

In a world where we’re quick to take medicine to relieve our pain, we can actually embrace the pain and remember it when we’re experiencing God’s blessings.

Jerry Caylor is the interim pastor for Brooks Memorial Baptist Church.