Pain

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back. Let’s think about sheer agony.

My jaw has been hurting me the past few days. Last night, I was in such great pain all I wanted to do was knock myself out with a pill.

The fundamentalist homunculus who lives inside my head, a Deuteronomist if there ever was one, whispered the pain was sent by our God of love to punish me. Rubbish!

I thought of C. S. Lewis who said pain reminds us of God’s presence. I doubt very seriously I need to be reminded of something I think about as often as I think about sex…you know…every seven seconds according to research.

Truly, I think of God more than that. I’ve never timed it though. That would be like looking at an electron wouldn’t it?

No, pain happens because we have nerve endings. For me, right now, it’s either a tooth or a gum infection. I know this because it flares up as I am eating and for a long time afterwards. 

God gives the strength and the wisdom to deal with pain. All of us who are Christians believe that, don’t we?  How does God do that? 

Here’s how:  through millions of years of evolution our bodies have developed minds that tell us when we are hurting that we must avoid what causes us to hurt, or medicate ourselves, or endure the pain until such a time comes that we are better from it.

In other words, God gave us the wisdom to take a pill and go see a dentist. It really is that simple. We don’t have to be an atheists to do that. 

Indeed, I am a better man for knowing it.

And now I thank medical science. We are all deeply in debt to medical science. I am tempted to say that God is deeply in debt to medical science because God’s healing rate has significantly increased since the discovery of the germ theory and the technology devised to treat its effects.

But God evolved creatures who, after centuries of magical thinking, discovered the natural causes of diseases and natural ways to treat them.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Lord.

Blessings…