The Contamination of Pain, Part 1

I know a young author by the name of Donald Quist. He wrote a short novel titled Let Me Make You A Sandwhich. In it is a 1 page short story of someone who experienced a hurt so deep that mentally they became detached from this earth. It caused me to ask what do you do with a pain so deep, so great, that reflecting on reality feels improbable? This is my response to those questions.

God is a healer. But in order to be made whole, you have to face and recognize your pain. You can no longer put it on a shelf in your mind hoping to forget that it's there. You can't hide it in the deep recesses or the darkest corners of your heart.

"Maybe if it doesn't see the light of day, maybe if I place it in the dark it will wither and die," you think to yourself. You hope that by not facing it, the pain--whether it was a superficial surface scratch or one that was so deep it felt as if your internal organs were trying to escape your body--will just go away. And if it doesn't maybe the ebbing and aching will subside to a place where it's bearable numbness that becomes a part of your life.

Sadly, ignoring or hiding the pain doesn't make it better. It makes it worse because things neglected on a shelf begin to deteriorate and stuff hidden in dark areas begins to either mold and mildew or to dry rot.

Then you have a bigger problem. When the pain was one mass, no matter if it was small or a tremendously huge brick of pain, it was a singular pain. The pain was a centralized whole. But now that you've tried to ignore it or you've hidden it away in dark corners, the pain has begun to spread.

A definition of deteriotion is the act or process of disintegrating. The same can be said if your pain is dry rotting. If your pain has been hidden in a dark corner and is molding or mildewy, it's spreading as well. So in your effort to contain the pain, it has begun to slowly seep and spread into other areas of your life.


The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). (John 10:10 Amplified Bible Version)