| PAIN DEFINED. Catching up with a friend recently | | | | comforts doesn't mean it's not there. Like |
| brought the added surprise that she'd undergone | | | | paracetamol, the things we do to make the pain |
| comprehensive shoulder surgery. Replete with this | | | | more bearable purely mask the pain, never dealing |
| very elaborate but uncomfortable looking brace she | | | | with the root cause. |
| explained the lengthy process of recovery, including | | | | The purpose of paracetamol is simply to help us cope |
| pain management during the initial stages and how | | | | with a temporary pain--pain that will resolve of |
| important it is post-operatively. | | | | itself--i.e. a headache or stomach ache etc. It is, |
| Having never undergone any major surgery myself | | | | however, no good for the person who's suffering |
| the issue of post-operative pain management was a | | | | chronic (ongoing) pain. They'll need a more invasive |
| relatively new thing for me. The principle is this: if the | | | | intervention. And so it is for mental and emotional |
| patient is in pain they'll be tense. Simplistically, tense | | | | pain; most often we must have a remedy that |
| musculature and other tissues will not readily release | | | | addresses the root cause. |
| their toxins or facilitate rejuvenating blood flow etc, | | | | Flipping this on its head then, we have the case for |
| and recovery is therefore slowed. | | | | Christ, as far as Spiritual healing augmenting the |
| Therefore, therapeutic pain management is crucial in | | | | mental and emotional realms of dysfunction is |
| post-operative recovery and care. | | | | concerned. |
| As my friend spoke I instantly thought how similar | | | | Nothing is beyond the Spirit of God. Miracles are his |
| this is to the issue of spiritual healing and how | | | | business--the 'stock in trade.' |
| unreconciled emotional and hence mental pain would | | | | Would it surprise you to learn that God is the answer |
| almost always slow and even stunt the spiritual | | | | to all your mental and emotional pain?--not just some |
| healing of a person. And then, of course, I thought | | | | of it; all of it. At a level beyond our |
| of the reverse; that the miraculous spiritual healing of | | | | understanding--proving it to be miraculous--he attends |
| God would aid mental and emotional healing--a more | | | | to the meaning of the pain. We still have the pain but |
| holistic healing. | | | | it means less and it's less limiting; indeed we can then |
| 'Pain management' as far as mental and emotional | | | | triumph over the pain. Little by little the meaning is |
| pain is concerned must be about having the moral | | | | taken from the pain. And at some point the pain is |
| courage and strength (Joshua 1:9) to deal with | | | | basically all gone, but the appreciation of it |
| emotional baggage promptly and adequately, or at | | | | remains--we honour the pain. It becomes a |
| the very least, deal with it at some point. | | | | triumphant marker of whom we are and who we've |
| If we don't learn to manage this pain in our lives our | | | | become. |
| spiritual recovery is stunted, and our growth and | | | | Spiritual healing is often the last thing thought of. |
| potential is delayed. | | | | Funny, we should be placing it first! |
| Just because mental and emotional pain can be | | | | © 2010 S. J. Wickham. |
| covered over by a veneer of life choice and | | | | |