The gift of pain

On Friday I woke up with shooting pain all down my right upper thigh - for no apparent reason. I had not done any heavy work (unless that includes walking to work on Thursday and vacuuming!), and did not remember any physical trauma. After attempting a few times to get up and walk, and having to clamp my mouth shut so as not to wake my housemate with my cries of agony, I decided this might be more serious than I thought. My first instinct was to stay in bed and hope it would go away (the ostrich approach :) evade the problem!). After all, it only hurts when I put weight on my right leg. But because I had to lend Karen and Mey my car, I actually had to call them and let them know I couldn't possibly drive to their house and it was unlikely I would be able to go to work today. They panicked and insisted I go to see a doctor, which I only grudgingly agreed to do because the pain was actually quite bad. My main worry about seeing the doctor was that I felt really stupid about it. I mean, what if this pain was really because I walked to work on Thursday?!

Anyway - the doctor refered me to a physiotherapist and in the end, it turned out to be some nerve problem somewhere on my back. The physio inflicted a great deal of pain to my back but surprisingly the pain in my leg started going away! (Hurray for physios!)

I was reading yesterday about physical pain as a gift that alerts us to something not being quite right, with the purpose of keeping us from injury. Physical pain really forces you to stop your normal day-to-day activities and find out what is wrong. The pain was so severe yesterday I just HAD to get something done. If the degree of pain was any less, I would have just told myself to get over it. (You see, I actually had some pain in my leg for the last few days, but it only hurt occasionally and so I ignored it!)

I was thinking (since I had lots of time to reflect in my bed!) about other types of pain that also act as a symptom of something not being quite right. It is a lot easier to ignore symptoms that are not physical, like fear, guilt, emotional pain, etc. And as I thought about this year, this little incident was a further reinforcement to the lesson I have been learning about taking heed to my inner world. If I kept ignoring the symptoms because I am busy, or not willing to face up to it, one day I might wake up with such severe "pain" that it would take a lot more to recover than if I kept my heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. (Prov 4:23)