A very important medical sub-specialty is known as pain management. Since pain can be overwhelming at times, it is helpful that some specially trained physicians are able to treat us in such cases. Nobody welcomes pain. Although it is usually a warning sign that something serious could be wrong, there are times when its discomfort is simply an aftermath of injury or surgery. Hopefully, with healing and time, the pain will diminish and health and wholeness will result.
However, thank goodness there are medications that many can take that temporarily remove or ease the symptoms of pain. The effectiveness of these drugs varies between individuals with some persons unable to tolerate them and others drawn to become dependent upon them. That’s why a physician’s care and direction is so important in the treatment of physical pain.
But there is another type of pain that may have a somatic focus as well. It is based on the emotional, psychological and spiritual side of our existence. To cope with this type of discomfort, there are psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, spiritual advisers and our religious practitioners. The pain in our souls and minds is no less demoralizing or destructive.
It is safe to say that a spin-off of discomfort and pain is something we all seem to know a lot about. We all experience it regularly.
Let’s just call it worry. In this day and time, there seems to be plenty to worry about: our economy, our nation, our world, our families, and quite frequently ourselves. How can we keep going on and manage in its midst? Oh, that there were a medication that could be a cure-all for this type of pain.
A wise elderly man from my past once told me, “Worry is the pre-payment of interest we pay for a loan we have yet to take out.” Why make interest payments for a loan that we have never made? In short, it is foolish, not necessary and very imprudent.
The dictionary defines the verb to worry as “to destroy or disturb one’s sense of peace by repeated or persistent tormenting attacks.” The word tormenting is described as “intensely or unbearably painful.” So how can you and I cope with all of the pain in our lives?
As people of faith, we can “cast our burden upon the Lord and he will sustain us.” These are words from David in Psalm 55:22. He was writing to encourage his people that no matter what the circumstances might be ó even if the “terrors of death have fallen upon them”ó God will never permit the righteous to be put down. The Christian faith teaches us that just as real as any burden, pain, or hurt that we may experience is the sustaining presence of the Lord in our every need. Even if the pain cannot be cured, our Lord’s presence can help us cope with it.
Martin Luther once said, “Pray, and let God do the worrying.” Maybe that is very good advice for us in our present time. Worry will not change things. It only complicates things. Therefore, simply ask God to concern himself with that upon which we worry, do our best to be his disciples, and leave the consequences to Him. That sounds like the best pain management we can secure for our souls today. And it is free. To overwhelm ourselves in worry just won’t make it.
The Rev. David Nelson is a retired Lutheran minister.