Friendly Pain

In the United States, torture, the intentional infliction of pain to uncover truth, is outlawed.  Even in Guantanamo, where we are dealing with Islamic terrorists bent on the destruction of the West, torture is forbidden.

But this morning, I'm going to be tortured.  I will be poked, prodded, stuck and scraped, all in the pursuit of uncovering truth from the tooth.   That's right, I'm going to the dentist for my bi-annual teeth cleaning and exam.  I'm going to be tortured and I'm going willingly, even paying for the experience though not particularly looking forward to the experience.

Why would I do that?  Why would I pay to have someone inflict pain on me?  Because I am certain that the pain is valuable to me.  It is the price I pay to keep my teeth in this progressively aging head. As much as I dislike the discomfort, I appreciate the discovery of plaque, tartar and tooth decay that allows my dentist to do what is necessary and good for my dental health.

Pain, as much as we dislike it, can have the purpose of preventing decay and destruction and demise. Pain can be our friend, it can be the one thing a friend alone would inflict on us.  For instance the pain of being brutally honest that a best friend my bring.  We don't want to hear it and they don't want to bring it but your best interest depends on this kind of honesty.

The pain of deprivation or delayed gratification may well be inflicted by a parent who loves a child very deeply because he/she knows that the child is not ready for the thing they ask or that what they are asking is now and will forever be harmful to them.  A parent take pleasure in providing and experiences pain in denying a child but often will choose the answer that causes pain in both them and the child for the present but brings about good in the long run.

This is precisely what God will often do.  He will allow or inflict pain in the present to prevent worse in the future.  Listen to his words in Hebrews 12:10-11, "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 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."

No, I don't expect to ever like the feeling of pain but there are times when it is welcomed because it brings life in the end.  There is such a thing as friendly pain, pain that is inflicted for our good - pain often described as discipline.  Jus' Say'n.