Healing Pain

People talk about God as if no pain is ever associated with God. They talk about, for instance, "God heals," but they talk about healing as if it is pain-free. I have experienced many forms of healing that have been painful, whether for a moment or for days or weeks. I have experienced treatments, that while the treatment was occurring, felt worse or more painful than the condition that was being treated. I have witnessed healing that debilitated for a period of time.

The ointment heals when it is put on a child's cut, but it stings so much, the child dreads the healing. Setting a broken bone heals, but at the moment of it's setting, it hurts worse than the pain of the broken bone. An operation may heal a body, but the person may not be able to move or get out of bed for days or weeks, and when mobility is restored, there are limits to that mobility.  So the healing often is painful, debilitating, disrupting, life-altering.

The healing is necessary, and the pain or condition will either reduce or vanish over time, whereas the lack of healing will allow the condition or pain that requires the healing to never end. So the pain of the healing is good, if we can ever say something so stupid as saying that pain is good. But let us no longer pretend that God's healing is free of pain any more than any other healing is free of pain. Let us no longer pretend that God's healing won't disrupt our lives, or debilitate us for a period, any more than any other healing would.

God heals, but in this world, healing, like most other things, hurts.