By Steve

THE HEALING THERAPY OF PAIN

I've experienced it many times in my life. Pain. I've split my nose, skill sawed my thigh and was stung by a sting ray (not all on the same day). Pain. I've been rejected by prom dates, grad schools and potential employers. Pain. People I care about move away, some people lose touch and a couple friends have died. Pain. But sometimes the pain I experience seems to be the one thing that brings relief.

I'm not talking about a numbing sort of pain that just helps us cope...like getting a shot at the dentist so you don't feel him drilling. I mean a pain that moves us past our hurt and into a new place.

I broke my ankle the first day of summer before my senior year of high school. It hurt. I wore a cast until two weeks before my first start as the varsity Quarterback. The following 12 games that Fall did wonders for my freshly healed ankle, and at the end of the season, my doc gave me some wonderful news. He needed to re-break my ankle so he could set it correctly and screw it back together properly. This turn of events caused incredible pain and changed the course of my life (stories for another time), but what it took to correctly heal my leg, was the pain of surgery. There is a healing power in pain.

Last Friday I experienced a bit of pain. I was at a large gathering of a couple hundred people, and needed to get out...I could not sit there any longer. The experience forced me to face some things still lingering in me, although I didn't know it. As my legs carried my wounded heart, angry mind and tearful eyes throughout the parking lot, I was transported back to previous experiences. Experiences that hurt me. Confused me. Angered me. This one night, Friday night, began to re-create those experiences and it hurt.

On Monday, it was gone. The pain of Friday and the lingering hurt. I talked with several people, prayed some and took a long walk in silence, but still I can't explain it. I don't want to. Its real. Its good. Its final. The hurt I experienced Friday healed the hurt from my past and moved me to a new place. There is a healing therapy in pain. And as much as I don't like it when I hurt or when I see others hurting, maybe at times pain is the one thing that will make us well.