Pain & Death

In the last post, We discussed Fear. We touched briefly on what people are generally afraid of; ‘the fear of the unknown, fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of ridicule, even the fear of not being in fear.’ Let’s define this a little more to help us see the big picture. Fear, as an evolutionary tool of survival, basically kept us from being eaten, mangled, or torn apart by our enemies and wild animals. Fear basically kept us alive. In that vein of thought, I think it would be safe to say that what we’re afraid of is death, literally and metaphorically.

Let’s play a little game. Identify a fear you have, any fear. Then say to yourself; I’m afraid of ‘A’ (your fear) because ‘B’ (what that fear implies). I’m afraid of ‘B’ because of ‘C’. I’m afraid of ‘C’ because ‘D’. You see where this is going. Ride that train of thought. Now, your train may be shorter or longer than others’ but no matter who you are, you will eventually end up where everyone else ends up. At the end of the day fear is a mechanism designed to keep us alive. It’s all about survival, i.e., avoiding death and/or pain at the very least. Getting to the point, isn’t pain/death what we’re all afraid of? Our fear of pain and death manifests in different, and oh so very creative ways, but essentially we’re all trying to avoid pain and death, both literal and metaphorical.

So we turn to faith, religion, and spirituality to calm us and give us peace. But where so many are wrong is in thinking or believing that our faith is there to help us avoid pain and death. This kind of thinking or faith is counterintuitive. The practice of avoidance is not only counterintuitive but also counterproductive. The meatheads at the gym (and I use this term with the utmost respect for meatheads) understand this better than many people of faith. They grunt and sweat the words ‘no pain, no gain.’ So true, so true. If you want to grow and get better, pain is an essential part of the process.

So, Faith is not about avoiding pain and death. It’s about trust to help us overcome our FEAR of pain and death. We pray asking God to help us avoid the pain, or at least take it away when we’re experiencing it. Pain is a part of pleasure as death is a part of life. They’re just different degrees of one experience. For example, the pain that the aforementioned meatheads experience at the gym is real, but is deemed ‘pleasurable’ even desirable, because of the benefits and results they hope to see from it. It’s all the same thing on opposite ends of the experience spectrum.

We expend so much energy in seeking out the ‘pleasurable’ and as much energy if not more, in avoidance of the ‘painful.’ Remember, God never said there would only be sunny days. Into each life a little rain must fall, or sometimes a lot of rain. Sometimes they’re of our own doing, other times as a consequence of others’ doing. Either way, the question is not ‘how do I avoid this cup?’ but ‘what is it that I can learn as I endure it?’

It is human to attempt avoidance of pain and death. But faith teaches us not to avoid the ‘valley.’ It teaches us to trust that we are not alone as we go through it.

Faith teaches us, ‘Fear not, for I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ ‘Yea, ‘tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.’ ‘And lo, I will be with you even unto the end of the age.’ Pain and death comes to everyone. It’s foolishness to think otherwise. We do not have to deal with it alone tho. And that’s the point of having faith.