Weekly Words

When Healing Hurts

Recently one of our members was diagnosed with stomach cancer. As always, it was devastating news. However, as more inquiry was done doctors realized that it was caught early and it would simply need surgery to expel. The surgery, which consisted of cutting out a small part of the stomach and removing the cancer, was a success. As we sat in the waiting room and listened to the doctor assure us that everything was going to be alright, everyone was relieved.

Now that the surgery was over, the doctor informed the family that their loved one would still be in the hospital another week and then would require three to four weeks of rehabilitation. Four days later they were just to the point where they would allow the consumption of liquids. As I was processing her recovery it dawned on me that all the pain, discomfort, and disability that our member was experiencing was no longer due to the cancer, it was due to the healing. In order to be healed, a stomach had to be cut, a piece of a body part had to be removed, and pain had to be inflicted. This cancer survivor, could not eat, was confined to a hospital bed, and was looking at a month’s worth of rehabilitation, all in the name of healing. In that moment of reflection I realized the truism, that sometimes healing hurts.

It dawned on me that so many times we are not able to remove harmful entities out of our lives because we are not willing to endure the pain that comes with healing. Many of us hold on to ideologies, traditions, actions, and beliefs that are harmful to ourselves and others, simply because we fear the anguish and aching that accompanies their removal. Some of us have relationships with toxic people who are family, friends, or romantic partners, and despite their detriment to our lives we cannot bring ourselves to remove them from our world. Many times we find ourselves waiting for the “right” moment when we can feel “good” about our decision. However, just as cancer does not heal itself, there are some things and people that do not fix themselves. Ultimately, if we are going to be healed, we may have to cut something out, and it may have to hurt.

It would be great if we lived in a world where things that are bad for us would be bad to us, and where decisions for betterment would always feel good. However, the truth is things that we Love can kill us, and pains that we hate can save us. Sometimes we are forced with the decision to either live with a disease that will kill us, or accept a healing process that will hurt us. As we continue to make sense out of a life that occasionally does not offer pain-free choices, I pray that God would give us all the courage and strength to be healed, even when it hurts.

Humbly in Christ’s Love,
Pastor B.A. Jackson