The Healthy And Pain-Full Body

Posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago at 11:25 pm. 3 comments

I have now finished reading the book Where Is God When It Hurts and it has been very thought provoking. Although it deals largely with physical pain and things like terminal illness, it still helped me think through the pain of my grief in different ways.

The last section of the book is about what Christianity uniquely offers to those in pain. One of the things it talks about is how the concept of the Body Of Christ points to how Christians need to share and carry each others pain and suffering. Philip Yancey quotes a doctor called Paul Brand who says this about the human body:

Individual cells had to give up their autonomy and learn to suffer with one another before effective multicellular organisms could be produced and survive.

He suggests that the way in which cells in the body work should be the same way we humans work. The key to successful relationships lies in the sensation of pain.

In human society we are suffering because we do not suffer enough.

So much of the sorrow in the world is due to the selfishness of one living organism that simply doesn’t care when the next one suffers. In the body if one cell or group of cells grows and flourishes at the expense of the rest, we call it cancer and know that if it is allowed to spread the body is doomed And yet, the only alternative to the cancer is absolute loyalty of every cell to the body, the head.

I am struck that the image of the Body Of Christ is one which means we need to know and share each others pain for it to be healthy. Before reading this, I thought that it just meant we Christians ought to just get along and work together, but now I see a deeper and more meaningful application.

In my grief I have not felt that many share my pain. I know that many of my friends grieved the loss of Amy and have suffered because she is not here. And sometimes I don’t want to spend time grieving with my friends, I’d rather have fun! I know that they haven’t a clue how I feel, and that they couldn’t know how I feel unless they lost their daughter. But I also know that I would feel carried and less isolated if friends asked more often and gave me time and space to answer honestly and to grieve in their presence.

Philip Yancey goes on to point out the we Christians are Christ in this suffering world and should respond to those suffering or in pain with love, tenderness, and by sharing their pain and sorrows. He says his response to the question “Where is God when it hurts?” would be another question: “Where is the Church when it hurts?”

Often the Church is looking the other way, focussing on the personal gain of the Gospel, avoiding the questions surrounding pain and suffering and therefore avoiding those who hurt and struggle.