The Theology of Pain and Suffering?

[SDG]

Meet the Girl Who Feels No Pain




Click here to view Video Clip of this condition

Link: Gift of Pain Website

Not to long ago, a five-year-old girl named Gabby Gingras was in the news. Gingras has an interesting predicament: she was born with a disorder that keeps her from feeling any physical sensations like pain. Her disorder is called Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy type-4, or HSAN type-4.


It's a tough life when you can't feel anything. Gingras wandered around for quite a while with a broken jaw once, and no one noticed until she developed a fever due to an infection the broken bone caused. Gingras can't control her body temperature in extreme weather, either. Since her body can't feel pain, she can't feel heat, and her sweat glands don't kick in when she starts to get hot.


She lost an eye due to excessive rubbing and scratching, and now wears a prosthesis—a fake eye. Her baby teeth had to be pulled out because she started to chew apart her tongue and the inside of her mouth. (She didn't stop because it didn't hurt.) Her other eye is pretty bad; she has a prescription of 20/200. Her parents are debating whether or not to put her through eye surgery. If all goes well, she would be able to see much better. If not, she could be totally blind.


Luckily for the rest of us, this hindering trait is extremely rare; only 100 cases have been documented.


--information in this article was found in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday, May 15th 2005.

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What does God say about pain and suffering?
What role does it play in His plans? if any?
What if you felt no pain .... Would it affect your relationship w/God?
Is there a theology to pain and suffering? What is it?
Is pain just a punishment? Can it somehow be a gift?
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Some verses to dwell upon:

Genesis 3:16
To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

Job 30:17
My bones are pierced in me at night,And my gnawing pains take no rest.

Psalm 116:3
The pains of death surrounded me,And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow.

Lamentations 1:12
"Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the LORD brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?

Romans 8:17
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Philippians 3:10
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

1 Peter 4:13
But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

Revelation 21:4
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

[Coonskinner]

Great thread.

A verse I have often pondered here...


Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
I Peter 4:1

[SDG]

Of course there is a distinction that needs to be made between physical and emotional pain ... I wonder if Gabby's emotional pain is similar to ours ... I don't think she suffers from some of the psychosomatic/physiological pains we often suffer as a result of emotional trauma ....

[mizpeh]

Coonskinner,

In addition to the verse you quoted, I'd like to know your thoughts on this passage:

1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;

If sin stems from the mind/heart, why would suffering in the flesh cause us to cease from sin? Is it an attitude?

[Coonskinner]

Originally Posted by mizpeh

Coonskinner,

In addition to the verse you quoted, I'd like to know your thoughts on this passage:

1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;

If sin stems from the mind/heart, why would suffering in the flesh cause us to cease from sin? Is it an attitude?

Fasting is a physical act, but it affects our inner man.

We are tri-part beings, body--soul--spirit.

They are connected pretty tightly.

What affects our minds and spirits can create physical manifestations.

By the same token, pain, suffering, etc. can serve as a purifying agent.

[SDG]

Pain is also our alarm system ... it tells us that if we don't do something quick ... we will surely die ... example: Hand to fire ...

Surely, Adam and Eve felt no pain ... before the fall ....
and the book tells us that the wages of sin is death ...

Has God somehow used the result of sin ... death ... and placed pain as our reminder that we are living in sin and will surely die unless we do something about it???

[Coonskinner]

If I have my facts straight, one of the things leprosy does is kill nerve endings in the extremeties of the body.

Thus the eroding fingers, toes, etc. are partially caused by infections caused from injuries gotten and not noticed.

[SDG]

Would we truly understand and know joy if we felt no pain??

I think this discussion somehow is linked to the fruit that was born from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

[Coonskinner]

There is a reason why jewelers put diamonds on black velvet.

[SDG]

Originally Posted by Coonskinner

There is a reason why jewelers put diamonds on black velvet.

Elaborate.