by Mike James

"Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit…. I doubt that such pain makes us 'better'; but I know that it makes us more profound."—Frederich Nietzsche.

"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."—Nietzsche

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."—Nietzsche

I don't know if Nietzsche read his Bible, but he seemed to know a bit about pain and suffering.

One of the primary arguments non-believers make against Christianity is that if God is good and defined as love, why does He allow so much pain and suffering in the world? Obviously, since He is God, He would have the capability to remove the pain and suffering. This is a bigger question than I have the room to address in this short blog, but I want to provide a partial answer by addressing the positive side of pain.

You may have heard the phrase "No pain, no gain" in relation to exercise. When you are lifting weights to get stronger, you will have to try heavier weights. When you try heavier weights, you break down your muscle fibers, and you will feel some pain in your muscles. But by breaking down your muscle fibers over time, you then get them to rebuild themselves and become stronger.

The same idea can be found in long-distance running. To run a marathon, you will need to begin to push your body over a period of time to run longer and longer distances. Pain will be involved as you enhance your lung and muscle capacity to take on the heavier workload. But once again, breaking yourself down actually builds your body up to withstand the increased workload.

Over the past ten years, more research has been conducted into the concept of hormesis. This is defined as a process in which exposure to a low dose of a chemical agent or environmental factor that is damaging at higher doses induces an adaptive beneficial effect on the cell or organism.

Certain forms of pain, in moderate amounts, trigger benefits for mental and physical health. Research examples include cardiovascular exercise, weightlifting, ice and steam baths, high-heat saunas, fasting from food, eating spicy peppers, and even holding your breath.

Here is how it works. Pain starts with stress, and stress shows up in your cells. When we get stressed out, the balance of oxygen in our cells gets disrupted. In response, the mitochondria—bean-shaped structures that supply cells with energy—ramp up their work to help with overcoming the challenge.

Mitochondria produces a waste product called reactive oxygen species. Regular exposure to toxic stressors like cigarette smoke, heavy metals, or chronic emotional strain leads to oxygen species weakening the cells and causing proteins to misfold, which can cause disease.

Hormesis causes stress to be more manageable. A protein called Nrf-2 begins to work for us. The protein enters the nucleus and moves to the DNA in each cell. It helps molecules in the cell make a team of smaller proteins for fighting stress. They clean up the oxygen waste. They also detoxify and fix cells throughout the body, boosting health and resilience.

Much more can be said about this, but let's bring this idea into the spiritual realm. Notice Romans 5:1-5: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Notice how suffering (stress) in the spiritual realm builds us up and makes us stronger! The Holy Spirit in you works like the protein in our cells in hormesis. The Holy Spirit in your mind helps you manage stress and build upon the experience. Once you get through the first experience you know you can do it again.

Even Jesus Christ, our spiritual example, did this. Read the experience He had with Satan in Matthew 4. Remember, He first fasted (stress) for 40 days before the temptations. It was a difficult exercise for Him, as was the temptation, but it then catapulted Him into His ministry and the stressors that would follow, leading to the ultimate stress of giving up His life for us.

But that final PAIN and SUFFERING that Christ endured leads to the greatest gift for humanity! Pain can be GOOD!

Sources

"The Surprising Health Benefits of Pain," by Matt Fuchs, Time, October 22, 2024

"Hormesis Defined," by Mark P. Mattson, National Library of Science, January 2008, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2248601/#:~:text=Thus%2C%20a%20short%20working%20definition,on%20the%20cell%20or%20organism'.