It’s My Pain I’ll Use It If I Want To

When I think I've turned a page to a new chapter in my life, I realize there is nothing new in life. I'm referring to pain. I cannot remember a time in my life when I didn't have some pain.

In the years of my naivety, I never imagined that when I got older, I would experience more pain. Nevertheless, pain has become my daily friend.

I thought I had gotten through all my pain and was beginning to relax for an entire week. The only pain I had was being a pain in the neck to someone around me.

It was on a Monday night, I was in bed sleeping, and just after midnight, I awoke, and my right wrist was in a lot of pain. I couldn't move it for fear of pain. I got up, took some Tylenol, and went back to bed. When I woke up in the morning, the pain was worse than before the Tylenol.

I really didn't know what happened because I couldn't remember hitting my wrist on anything during the night. The pain was real, but the source of the pain was unknown.

When I got up in the morning, I went into the kitchen and informed The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage about the pain in my hand. She took great interest and wanted to do whatever she could to help me get rid of all that pain. Of course, the first thing she did was to give me Tylenol.

That did not work, and by late afternoon, the pain was worse than before.

It was then that she decided I needed to go to the Urgent Care for some medical help.

Throughout the long years of our marital bliss, I have learned one great lesson: "Don't argue with The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage." So, she drove me down to the Urgent Care for treatment around 7:30 PM.

I went in, signed up, and then we waited only 90 minutes in the waiting room. During that time, the wrist was getting worse, and the pain was not letting up.

I always take The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage with me to any doctor visits I have, because she takes the doctor's words very literally. I, on the other hand, paraphrase what the doctor says, which, when I get home, doesn't make any sense at all.

Finally, we were ushered in to see the doctor. They did X-rays on my arm and some other surgical things that I was not quite sure of. Then, the doctor pulled out her needle and prepped my arm for a shot.

While preparing that shot, I noticed she was grinning. That made me realize that the shot was going to hurt like crazy. And boy, did it hurt, and I almost shouted in pain, which made her smile more.

The doctor diagnosed my situation and prescribed some medication, and then gave me an arm bracelet to help ease the pain in my arm.

We finally left Urgent Care about 10:30 and headed for home.

Before I went to bed, I had to take off the bracelet, and the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage had to put some medication the doctor recommended to deal with the pain. I didn't have much sleep that night.

In the morning, I got up, and the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage had to examine my arm to see how it was. She then gave me more Tylenol to deal with the pain and helped put on my arm bracelet.

It was a busy day for The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. She had her regular duties and had little time to sit down and rest. But, she took time to stop what she was going and examine my arm. She would always ask, "How is your arm doing now?"

My constant reply was, "It's doing fine." Of course, she never believed me.

Since this was my pain, I decided to take advantage of it. I would get The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage to bring me some coffee when I needed it, maybe a snack, and she would jump to the service.

But then a crazy thought entered my mind. Believe me, my mind is well accustomed to crazy thoughts.

Before she came in to give me the next Tylenol, I switched the arm bracelet from my right arm to my left arm to see if she would notice. I know, it's a very crazy thing to do, but then that is my MO.

She came in and said, "Let me see your arm."

I lifted up my left arm so she could look at it, and she examined it very carefully and then said, "It's starting to look better. I hope the pain is also going away." And then she went back to the kitchen to her work.

I chuckled quite a bit as I put the bracelet back on my right arm where it belongs. If I'm going to have pain, I'm going to use it for some pleasure on my part. I just hope I don't get caught.

As I was reading my Bible, I came across an interesting verse.

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

My physical pain is nothing compared to God’s grace in me each day.