Someone gave me this bit of wisdom once: she said, “the pain tells me that I am alive.” She was battling cancer and all the pain and agony that go along with that, and she stopped taking her pain medication almost altogether. She is a brave soul. She said when the meds covered all of the pain, she would wake up and not know if she was alive or dead. Her illness had progressed to a point where she could go any time, and she didn’t want to be in a drug-induced stupor. She wanted to be alive and endure everything that goes along with that.

A certain amount of pain is inherent in this life, and it is there to remind you that you are alive. Just imagine what this life would be like without pain. People would be dressed in comfort and euphoria all the time. There would probably be no pushing forward, no move to seek something more.

How often are we seeking comfort? And how often do we expect to have it? In our culture, many of us are seeking comfort and trying to figure out how we can have it in a sustained way (all the time). We must realize that to live is to be in pain. The rhythm of life is surviving one set of hardships to encounter another.

Don’t get me wrong – we have moments of ecstasy and euphoria in this life, but they are not meant to be constant. They are merely meant to be a taste of what is to come. To seek this comfort now is not evil, but to expect it is probably foolish.