The Question Suffering Answers (3 of 8)
Series: Job
Robert Dawson
Job 1:6-2:1
Dr. Paul Brand was an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in treating leprosy in India and Louisiana. Leprosy (or Hansen's disease) is a disfiguring disease caused by a bacterial infection. Once considered incurable, leprosy can now be cured with antibiotics. One effect of the disease is that it destroys the nerves and causes numbness - a lack of pain sensation - in the limbs.
On one occasion, at a time when the disease was still considered incurable and the antibiotic treatments were still unknown, Dr. Brand was traveling by train in England. As he was getting ready for bed, he removed his shoes and socks and discovered to his horror that he had no feeling in his heel. He rubbed his heel, and the numbness persisted. He took a pin out of one of the shirts in his suitcase and jabbed it into his heel. Blood beaded up from the puncture wound, but still felt no pain.
His mind began swirling with fear. Dr. Brand spend most of the night lying awake, imagining his new life as a leprosy victim. He would have to live in isolation from his family and suffer the progressive deterioration caused by the then incurable disease. In the morning, he sat up in bed and decided to conduct one more test. He took the pin, jabbed it into his heel - and cried out in pain! It hurt! Thank God it hurt! Then he realized what had caused the numbness from the night before. During the long train ride along the English coast, he had hardly gotten up once to stretch his legs. The long period of immobility had numbed the nerve in his leg leading to the heel.
From then on, Dr. Brand would often speak of what he called, ''the blessing of pain.'' (R. Stedman, Let God be God, pg 37)
''The blessing of pain.'' Such an odd combination of words. Hearing the two of them together does not strike a harmonious chord in our ears or resonate with joy in our hearts. The sound of them together is rather discordant. Ra ...
Series: Job
Robert Dawson
Job 1:6-2:1
Dr. Paul Brand was an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in treating leprosy in India and Louisiana. Leprosy (or Hansen's disease) is a disfiguring disease caused by a bacterial infection. Once considered incurable, leprosy can now be cured with antibiotics. One effect of the disease is that it destroys the nerves and causes numbness - a lack of pain sensation - in the limbs.
On one occasion, at a time when the disease was still considered incurable and the antibiotic treatments were still unknown, Dr. Brand was traveling by train in England. As he was getting ready for bed, he removed his shoes and socks and discovered to his horror that he had no feeling in his heel. He rubbed his heel, and the numbness persisted. He took a pin out of one of the shirts in his suitcase and jabbed it into his heel. Blood beaded up from the puncture wound, but still felt no pain.
His mind began swirling with fear. Dr. Brand spend most of the night lying awake, imagining his new life as a leprosy victim. He would have to live in isolation from his family and suffer the progressive deterioration caused by the then incurable disease. In the morning, he sat up in bed and decided to conduct one more test. He took the pin, jabbed it into his heel - and cried out in pain! It hurt! Thank God it hurt! Then he realized what had caused the numbness from the night before. During the long train ride along the English coast, he had hardly gotten up once to stretch his legs. The long period of immobility had numbed the nerve in his leg leading to the heel.
From then on, Dr. Brand would often speak of what he called, ''the blessing of pain.'' (R. Stedman, Let God be God, pg 37)
''The blessing of pain.'' Such an odd combination of words. Hearing the two of them together does not strike a harmonious chord in our ears or resonate with joy in our hearts. The sound of them together is rather discordant. Ra ...
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