A High Tolerance for Pain

Updated: Jan 31, 2021

This summer I had quite a bit of dental work done because I had put it off for so long. One thing I had learned to do is put up with the pain. I was terrified of the dentist because I had had a bad experience with one in my early teens. My current dentist has never hurt me but because of past experience I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t…eventually. The pain in my mouth was not enough to get me to face my fear of the possibility of more pain. Well…..this summer it finally got to be enough. I was willing to face my fear because the current pain and two loose teeth were worse than any future pain. I went to the dentist every week for five weeks for cleanings and fillings. At the end of that five weeks I joked with the receptionist that I felt like this was graduation day. But now that I look back it sort of was. I had graduated from my fear. I was not hurt, my teeth are solid and in good shape and for the first time in my many years of living I can honestly say I wouldn’t hesitate to go back and I am not afraid.

I used to think a high tolerance for pain was a good thing but now I know differently. The older I get I find that a high tolerance for pain makes you put up with things way too long. It allows you to stay the same without change. It perpetuates more pain. It encourages you to make do with the status quo. It makes you adjust to the negativity and even participate in it instead of changing or getting out of it. A high tolerance for pain can make you wait too long to get help.

Quit numbing the pain…heal what’s hurting and live….quit putting up with the pain….heal… starting from within….

You can start by learning to embrace your life, all that it is and all that it isn’t. No one can do that for you. When you learn to embrace grace and be thankful, all that you are and were meant to be will be revealed. Stop fighting and resenting the process. There is nothing wrong with you or your life that surrender cannot cure. Surrender all that causes you fret, pain, anxiety and confusion. Release it. Holding on to what you can do nothing about keeps you powerless to effect change on those things you can. Holding on to old unresolved issues keeps you stuck in mind, body and spirit and contaminates the future. Release to the power of the Holy Spirit those things that the enemy would use to block. In the same way a blockage will cut of blood flow to your heart and threaten to end your life, holding on to the past will block the flow of your future and threaten your chosen destiny. People places and events try to drag us back into a dark place, a place we were never meant to go. If you are still blaming others for where you are or are not you are stuck. It’s not worth it. Let go of the old and embrace the new…..the new that God is trying to do in you. If you bring the same old way of thinking into the new it will bring you more of the same….pain. The bible says you cannot put new wine in to old wineskin or it will burst from the pressure because old wineskin is brittle and unyielding.

Can you take what you’ve been through and not be ashamed to use it? Can you focus on the hope for the future? Can you forgive and reserve judgement and remain oblivious to the judgement of others? The thought may make you cringe but you can do it. Surrender, vulnerability and transparency can be frightening but extremely empowering. Being open to the process…no feeling too deep or painful to explore and put to rest…no hurt so great that will be allowed to fester and grow…these are key in moving onward and upward. God has a plan and you are a significant part of it. No tear will be wasted. No experience unnoticed. Hindrances and roadblocks are constantly being used to stunt our growth and impede our future. Go around the traps and allow God to help you out if you’ve already stepped in one…or two. I embrace the grace today and I am extremely grateful that I may not be where I want to be but thank God I’m not where I was…..Amen.