The Gift of Pain

If you were going through pain, would you ask God to take it away?

We were talking about leprosy in my “Life of Christ” class that I’m taking at Talbot. We were talking about what it looks like, and how many lepers these days have fingers, hands, arms, and feet looking like they’re being eaten away at. I’ve heard before that leprosy was believed to be an infectous disease where the body deteriorates and eats away at itself, causing lepers to look the way they do.



I also heard an explanation that the body really isn’t eating away itself at all… modern leprosy involves damage to the nerves and the lost sense of touch. And the reason why the body looks as if it’s being eaten away at is simply because there’s no pain acting as warning signals to harm and danger. Naturally, the parts of the body are being burned, rubbed away at, cut off, and damaged because nothing is telling the body that it’s in harms way. Nothing is telling the body to turn away or flee.

I always thought this was a cute urban legend, but was pleasantly surprised when my professor was able to have this validated by a veteran pain specialist at UCLA Medical Center. This doctor confirmed that it is very positively the case among modern day lepers!

If you were experiencing pain in your life, would you ask God to take it away?
To pray for a leper and ask for his healing is to ask God to give the leper the gift of pain. To pray for a leper is to ask God to restore unto him a sensitivity to harm and danger.

If you were going through pain, would you ask God to take it away?

Would you pray for leprosy?

Hebrews 12:11
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."