Almost every impulse and thought we have tells us to avoid pain when we are already in pain. 

If you have a headache, you try to alleviate the pain – you don’t look to increase it. What you want most is for the pain to go away. 

We take pills to rid us of headaches. We protect wounds from getting bumped. When something gives us pain, we avoid doing what brought the pain in the first place. 

The medical profession, however, seems to go against that thinking. 

When something is broken, injured or not right, they will often place you in a more painful situation in an attempt to fix the first pain you had.

I’ve been living for the last few months with a pain in my elbow. I looked it up and what I have is golfer’s elbow – it’s like tennis elbow, only on the inside of the elbow. 

It’s the result of a repetitive action that causes micro tears in the tendon. I wrote about it here.

I’ve tried a few things to get rid of it. 

First I tried to not use that arm. I picked things up with my other hand, and avoided turning things or holding things for a long time with my left hand. I stopped using my rowing machine and even stopped playing hockey for a few weeks. 

But none of these things seemed to help. 

Then I got an elbow brace – a tensor band that tightens just below the elbow joint. It has a pad built in that puts pressure on the tendon and provides pain relief when you are using it. 

A couple of times I had to loosen the brace because it was cutting off the circulation in my arm, but I started playing hockey again.

Still my elbow was not getting better. 

I really didn’t know what else to do. My research showed that rest is important, but I had tried that. Cortisone shots apparently could help, but I don’t like needles. 

Then I heard about shockwave therapy. 

It sounded pretty cool, and I knew someone who had a shockwave machine. He’s a veterinarian who specializes in race horses. He offered to treat my elbow and I decided to take him up on it. 

He told me it would hurt. … There’s that pain thing: my elbow already hurt, and this shockwave would add pain to my pain. 

But it was all for a good cause – to make my first pain go away – so I decided to try it. 

Man, it hurt! Shockwave is a forced air gun, with very high pressure, that send shots of air onto your skin. 

It was like a jack hammer on my skin and bone. It may have only lasted two or three minutes, but it seemed like it was a long time. 

Now I have a week to determine if another treatment would be helpful. 

As crazy as it sounds, I think that if it helps decrease my elbow pain, I will put myself through another two or three minutes of pain again. 

Crazy, eh?

Here’s the thing: When you are in spiritual pain, whether that has to do with sin in your life, running from God, living with unforgiveness, or a host of other things, you just want the pain to go away. Don’t sweep that pain under the rug and try to live with it. As painful as it might be, face the pain and do what might be painful to rid yourself of your spiritual pain.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s causing pain in your life right now? Leave your comments below.