Pain as a Gift

Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Café

The night before my daughter was born, I was frantically finishing up the nursery, as I was scheduled for labor to be induced the next day.  In my haste, I tripped over the vacuum cleaner cord.  My knee swelled up and I worried that it would cause problems with labor.  In fact, it did not.  But over time, I did begin to have difficulty.  Kneeling over the tub to bathe my infant was painful.  Carrying the full diaper pail downstairs to the washing machine was painful.  I feared this was going to be a chronic problem that would keep me from adequately caring for my little girl.

To counteract the fear, I began to use the pain as a call to pray for others in pain.  Ultimately, I saw a doctor who drained the fluid on the knee and injected cortisone.  Problem solved. 

Now as we prepare to move back to Tennessee, I have begun to have immense back pain.  The fear that crops up now is that I will be hampered from caring for our grandchildren with whom we expect to spend a lot of time.  Once again, I seek to find ways to approach this situation with an attitude that helps rather than hinders. 

I have heard of people who described their cancer diagnosis as a gift because they used it as an opportunity to enlarge their appreciation for life.  Surely if someone can describe cancer as a gift, I can find productive ways to react to my back pain. 

When I googled “pain as a gift” I discovered a book by Dr. Paul Brand, first published in 1993 as Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants (1993), republished in 1997 as The Gift of Pain. Dr. Brand grew up in India,  studied medicine in London, and practiced orthopedic surgery in India and the United States., according to the website Goodreads.com.  The site reports that: “He achieved world renown for his innovative techniques in the treatment of leprosy.

“He was a pioneer in developing tendon transfer techniques for use in the hands of those with leprosy. He was the first physician to appreciate that leprosy did not cause the rotting away of tissues, but that it was the loss of the sensation of pain which made sufferers susceptible to injury. Brand contributed extensively to the fields of hand surgery and hand therapy through his publications and lectures. He wrote Clinical Mechanics of the Hand, still considered a classic in the field of hand surgery.”

My intention is to take all the steps that typically alleviate my back problems, while focusing on all those ways my body has served me over the years, the many ways it continues to function on my behalf, and to enlarge my awareness of all those who are in pain.  May that awareness call me both to prayer for them and to seek to be attentive for those opportunities when I might help a fellow sufferer.

 The invitation is open to share “two cups of tea” anytime at Hope’s Café, or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate