The Cure for Pain

For some time now I have had on my mind the concept of healing. This involves healing from emotional, physical, or any other kind of pain that can take place. There are a few things I wish to discuss but first I want to share a passage with you from one of the Narnia books, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

One of the characters is turned into a dragon, and without giving away too many details I wish to share with you his recounting of how he was later turned back into a human.

"Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly toward me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it-if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it...And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains...So at last we came to the top of this mountain I'd never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden-trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well..."

He goes on to describe the well and how he would like to get in and bathe. He thought maybe it would ease the pain that was in his leg. Keep in mind, he's a dragon. The lion tells him that he must undress first, before going in.

"I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down to the well for my bathe.

"But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I"ll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.

He tries one more time and the same thing happens. His skin grows back.

"Then the lion said...'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off-just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt-and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me-I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on-and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again...After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me."

I must confess, I had no idea how long this description was until I typed it, but I hope you stuck it out and read the whole thing. I also hope you would agree with me when I say, this is a beautiful description/metaphor for someone overcoming pain.

I read through this book for the second time this previous summer. Conveniently, I read it right before I would undergo a very minor surgical procedure that involved cutting into my tail bone. I was numbed in the area, but if you've ever had part of your body cut into, in order to 'dig' something out, you understand that you still feel the pressure regardless of how much the doctor numbs you. This story helped me get through that time. The way our body works shows us how we heal. In some cases, something that seems much worse needs to happen in order for you to gain everything that is necessary for you to live a more healthy life.

Let's look at the character of Eustace for a moment. He was the one who turned into a dragon. He was not a fantastic human being up until he turned into the dragon. While he was a dragon, his resolve grew as well as his character. He became a new creation. The whole time he was a dragon he had this bracelet around one of his arms, which hurt immensely. The cure for his pain involves a gruesome moment, but he found joy in it somehow because I think he knew what would happen if he just bore some pain in order to be free from it entirely.

He became a new creation. He became a new person. He became someone who could now bare pain with the optimism of what the future holds.

Another part of the story worth mentioning, aside from all of it, is that when he 'undresses' himself, he felt no pain and it did not him do any good. I feel as though C.S. Lewis was trying to teach us something about growth. In order to grow from and and of sinful natures/sin in general, we are required to take a step outside of ourselves. The question that comes up is whether or not we do that on our own or with the help of a higher power. What happened when Eustace tried to step out of himself alone? The scales and nasty skin grew back. It's not that he didn't want to be free from the skin, it's that he was not able to do it on his own. Maybe he wasn't ready to take a full step out of himself.

Maybe, he didn't realize exactly what it meant to take a step out of his self.

Maybe we're the same way.

Maybe we do not fully comprehend that we can't do this on our own, or maybe we're too stubborn to admit it. Either way, we must realize what it takes to grow and accept that it may hurt. It could hurt some, or hurt a lot. It depends on the person going through it.

The important thing is to not let your pain stop you from doing the right thing. Just because a girl that you love dumped you or you broke your arm does not make the world stop from moving. Other people have it just as bad if not worse than you.

Pain happens to everyone, whether physical or emotional it happens.

To quote The Gunseller, a book written by Hugh Laurie (of House M.D. fame):

Pain is an event. It happens to you, and you deal with it in whatever way you can.

This is a more cynical approach to pain, but there's a lot of truth to it. As I said, pain happens to everyone. There are no exceptions. And if you want to argue that, just remember that Jesus suffered through a gruesome death, and if you think he felt no pain, you should reconsider...never mind, everyone goes through pain.

Emotional, as well as physical, pain can be ignored, even though strong, emotional pain can at times hurt worse than physical pain.

The topic of pain is interesting to me because people talk all the time about how they are hurting in situations. I don't wish to seem careless/heartless but at the same time, if you wear your pain on your sleeves, you're being selfish. I do it too, so don't accuse me of pointing fingers.

Just as people wear pride, arrogance, emotions, etc, they can also wear pain on their sleeves. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be in pain, because as I stated earlier, pain happens to everyone, but you have to deal with it accordingly.

What if someone is hurting worse than you?

When you're hurt, all you can think about is yourself and what happened to you. You could be the person that makes a difference in the one who is hurting's life. But all you care about is yourself, so you ignore his/her pain, which is the easier thing to do, and you focus on your pain. It is much more difficult to ignore your own pain and help others deal with their own pain than the alternative.

I know what I'm saying isn't easy to do. I'm even more human than the rest of you, debatably, but what I'm doing is more like a 'Call to Arms". There is a world full of suffering people around us, but we cannot see it because we refuse to see it.

It's time to look past myself and look to those in need around me.

So I challenge you along with myself, to possibly look outside of your own skin for once and see what is going on around you. People are good liar's or at least attempt to be. Push to make a difference and do not be afraid to ask for help, from friends or someone more powerful.

-Chris Peters

I have more thoughts on this topic, we'll see if I post more in the future. In the meantime, let me know how you feel about everything!