Physical pain is a distraction to be sure. It can create situations where the simple things we are accustomed to doing are now a challenge. In fact, a person may look fine and yet be suffering beneath this facade.
Such was the case just yesterday where I heard a woman exclaim, “It is just a little water and easy to clean up!” She was referring to someone who had just told the man behind the counter that there was a potential problem on the floor, and he in turn was asking her to clean it up. It was apparently frustrating to her that instead of reporting it, the individual just didn’t clean it up.
I am here to say that I was that woman who saw the water, was concerned that someone would slip, and reported it immediately.
When I was with my family last week in New York I lifted something that was very heavy. I knew it was heavy, but I had full confidence that since I work at keeping fit it would not be an issue. However, next time, I can tell you that I will wait until I have help. I hurt my back, and although I have a strong back, I have suffered greatly with much pain and discomfort. In fact, it is just over 2 weeks now, and yesterday was the first day that I honestly started to feel and move normally. So, where in the past I would not have hesitated to clean up water on the floor, yesterday I could not, but to anyone seeing me walk I looked absolutely fine.
Pain is personal, and often it is hidden from those that don’t know us well. Perhaps it becomes something we keep still about so that we don’t have to explain it, because even the explanation can seem to be too much. Yet, there are times when the obvious begs the question, and on the same afternoon that I was experiencing my water incident, my husband met a woman and her husband.
This woman was sitting in a wheelchair while her husband went to get the car and she was having a conversation with Jack. Two days prior to this she had been walking along the sidewalk, looking at her phone, when she fell off the curb and into a road drainage area. The fall resulted in a broken toe, a leg broken in two places with swelling that was delaying the surgery, and because of allergies she was not able to take prescription pain medication. She was there looking serene and very put together, but all the while in extreme pain, yet keeping it hidden away.
It is amazing to me that individuals are able to function while in pain. I believe it can only be the grace of God that actually gets them through it all, and brings them out on the other side. My pain was temporary, but it has given me a new understanding and compassion for those that suffer day in and day out. Many of those very people are those we see each day, and yet we have no idea that they are in such pain, whether it be physical, emotional, or mental illness. Regardless of the reason behind the pain that is causing suffering, the truth is that pain is real.
With my pain, I felt so distracted that it was difficult to focus, as even the slightest moves grabbed at my attention. My respect has doubled for those that have continued to live full lives, to contribute in dynamic ways in their fields of expertise, and who push through doing the things that women are called to do each day, as if pain was a foreign presence to them that has no place in their world.
Matthew 4:24 CSB The news about Him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to Him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And He healed them all.