Elmer L. Towns. Pain—The Divine Mystery. Wheaton IL: Tyndale, 2007. E-book.
I picked up this book because I had liked what I read from the author back in the eighties when I worked in a Christian book store. Towns was one of the founders of what is now Liberty University and, judging from the books of his I had read, an influence to have Liberty minister to Christians outside of the Fundamentalist churches that Jerry Falwell identified with.
Pain—The Divine Mystery did not disappoint. Though the title suggests Lewis’s The Problem of Pain, it is really different. It has short chapters, each based on one or two Scriptures. It is written especially for people who are in pain, whether physical, mental, or emotional.
It is clear that Pain—The Divine Mystery was written from the author’s own experience. He tells of his cancer diagnosis and how both the disease and the cures gave him pain that truly immobilized him. Indeed, this book is as much his testimony as anything else. He gives instructions on how to pray for healing, but also encourages those whose conditions remain.
A few helpful quotations here give a sense of how Towns ministers to his readers:
If we stayed virile, stunning, and desirously young, we’d hate death, fight death, and never look forward to heaven. (8)
God is more interested in our response to pain, than our understanding of why pain comes. It is not God’s purpose to reveal the cause of things; it is God’s purpose to reveal himself. (24) [Think of Job].
One of the most honest and helpful sentences in a section that notes the connection between fear and pain tells us:
When fear makes you surrender to pain, then the pain intensifies. (61)
Similarly, Towns notes that a person’s confidence that the pain will be relieved is more effective than the pain reliever itself.
As a matter of research, a patient’s confidence will actually help block more pain signals to the brain than the morphine-medicine itself. What does that say to you? Our fear make us hurt a lot more than we actually do. And our confidence reduces our pain—we don’t hurt as much as we should. (63)
The chapter on Jesus’ calming the storm while his disciples were afraid has really excellent teaching. And it is not just theoretical or theological. Towns is speaking from experience. He has been there. There is nothing simplistic here.
He also takes an honest look at the story of Jesus healing the lame man by the Pool of Bethesda. The lame man and some of the other people who witnessed this miracle made excuses. Jesus had an answer or an action for each one of them. We can learn something from this.
Pain can be hard to take, but Pain—The Divine Mystery is worth sharing with anyone who is experiencing pain in his or her life.
God never intended for the night to be permanent. He has divided a 24-hour day into light and darkness. (84)
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)
Amen.