Pain Has a Purpose

Have you ever seen videos or read articles on children born without functioning nerves? These children who suffer from Congenital Insensitivity to Pain With Anhidrosis (CIPA) lack the ability to feel pain or to cool themselves through sweating. This may sound like a blessing, but it’s actually a dangerous disorder. Most of these children end up hospitalized dozens of times by the age of five. The greatest danger to someone with CIPA is not realizing they are injured and thus not treating it. That injury can develop into something major and potentially life-threatening.

Pain has a purpose. Getting too close to a hot stove teaches us not to get too close to a hot stove. Getting too close to a toxic person teaches us not to get too close to a toxic person. Fear has a purpose too. Fear protects us when we respond to it as we should. Fear of getting a ticket or into a wreck keeps most of us from speeding through stop signs.

Uncomfortable emotions have been placed within us to guard us, guide us, and help us grow. When God designed His creation, He didn’t make a mistake when it came to our emotions. He looked at what He had created, and He said, “It’s all good,” (Genesis 1:31).

To label some of our emotions as “bad” and others as “good” is to fall into a trap of judgment and negative self-talk. Emotions are a gift to make us aware of potential dangers - to offer a springboard for progress and to provide a healthy bond in relationships. All emotions are good, even the “bad” ones. When we slide into the thought pattern that some emotions are bad, we limit which emotions we are willing to experience. This leads to emotional resistance. Emotional resistance prevents us from learning the lessons our emotions are designed to teach.

Just like you want to be accepted and acknowledged in your life, so do your emotions. Judging your emotions as bad and then seeking to stuff or distract yourself from the “bad” ones prevents them from helping and teaching you. Instead, try acknowledging all your emotions as helpful. If you’re not sure what emotions you have due to a habit of ignoring them, you can start by writing down what you feel. Just a few lines are okay—a few words even.

Keep it simple. Describe where in your body you feel it. Describe what you are feeling as if you are talking to a foreigner. Often, after you do this, you will find that these emotions are released more quickly than if you’d resisted them, shifted blame for them, or ignored them through distraction, becoming like children with CIPA and never feeling them at all.

Prayer: Jesus, thank You for the life lessons You give me that teach me how to live a full and abundant life each day and also how to better treat and engage with myself and my emotions.

* Was this Plan helpful? We adapted this Plan from It's All Good: 90 Devotions To Embrace Your Now (by Heather Hair, DaySpring).