Pain has a God given purpose, drugs often undermine that purpose.
Drugs often short-circuit our body’s system for alerting and identifying problems in our diets or lifestyle. Drugs and chemicals have been sold as a cure, in pill form, when what we really need is to analyze our food or lifestyle to see what the origin for our sickness is.
People who avoid drugs tend to live longer and healthier lives.
Jack LaLanne has been called the founder of the modern fitness movement. He is one of the most famous health and fitness gurus of our time. He was the first to produce a fitness television program, the first to open a fitness club. The jumping jack is named after him. When Jack was 54, 20 year old Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had just become Mr. Universe, challenged Jack to a contest of strength. Arnold called Jack an animal after Jack beat him soundly. Jack LaLanne lived to be 96 years old. At 96 he did not have Alzheimer’s and was still doing two hour workouts each day, which included: walking, swimming, weights and calisthenics. Jack LaLanne did not believe in the use of drugs to improve your health. Instead, Jack LaLanne exercised regularly. He ate red meat three times a day and eggs too. Red meat, eggs and exercise are all recommended by God’s word, the Bible.
1984 (age 70) – handcuffed, shackled, and fighting strong winds and currents, he towed 70 rowboats, one with several guests, from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary, one mile away.[1]
Jack LaLanne at 95 with wife and TV interviewer
Jack LaLanne is quoted as saying, “many of our aches and pains come from lack of physical activity.” “We look for crutches such as sleeping pills, pep pills, alcohol, cigarettes, and so on.”
LaLanne often stressed that drugs and processed foods, like sugar, contributed to making people mentally and physically ill.
In the fifties and sixties Science was king, doctors were gods and people turned to science and drugs, believing that pills could solve all their problems. Instead, drugs have increasingly become one of our biggest problems.
Drugs Cause deaths!
Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US, with 55,403 lethal drug overdoses in 2015. Opioid addiction is driving this epidemic, with 20,101 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 12,990 overdose deaths related to heroin. [4] According to government data, deaths from heroin have surpassed the number of gun homicides.[2]
The drug related death rate continues to rise at an alarming rate; in 2015 heroin alone killed almost 13,000 people in the U.S.[4]
It is no surprise that the word of God is so adamantly opposed to the use of drugs, potions, and medications. The bible calls this, Pharmakeia. This Greek word is why we call the place we purchase legal drugs, a pharmacy.
Galatians 5:19-21 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity debauchery; 20 idolatry and (Pharmakeia); hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The key to this problem is the ability of drugs to bypass God’s safety alarm system. Think about this; God created our bodies with the ability to experience pain. Why would he do that? Because pain has a divine purpose.
Pain has a Divine purpose! Drugs postpone pain.
One of the biggest problems with the Biblical disease of leprosy, was that it left the person without normal feeling of pain in their extremities, (nose, fingers, toes); therefore, people afflicted with leprosy often lost their fingers and toes because they could not feel pain when they were damaging those parts of their bodies. Pain was created by God to protect our bodies from harm.
When you get a headache, your body is trying to tell you something. Maybe you ate something that was not good for you. Maybe you haven’t had enough sleep and your body is trying to tell you to rest. Maybe you are too stressed out and need to either slow down or change your thinking patterns. Maybe your cartilage is wearing down to the point that your bones are actually rubbing against each other, which is causing the pain we call Arthritis. By taking aspirin or other more powerful pain relievers you can reduce the pain and keep grinding away at your joints. Taking it easier on your joints or giving your body the materials necessary to rebuild cartilage would be a much better and longer-lasting solution. [6] God promised that if you would obey His commandments, He would, “take away sickness from among you.” Exodus 23:20-25
Using painkillers as our first response to pain is like someone driving down the road in a Cadillac Escalade and seeing the oil or water light come on. Instead of pulling the car over to the side of the road and adding more oil or water, they simply take a piece of masking tape and place it over the light so they aren’t bothered by the flashing red light anymore. The short-term result would be that they could continue on their journey, the long-term result would be a ruined engine. Trust me, several of my children have kept driving and I can tell you from first-hand experience, it’s more expensive than pulling over and adding water or oil.
Using drugs to mute our bodies alarm system.
Christians, every day by the millions, are traveling through life in a vehicle made by God (their body). When the red light of pain comes on, they simply put the tape of aspirin or some stronger painkiller over it and drive on. God put the pain there so that we would know that something was wrong. There have always been forms of pain relievers. Alcohol is probably the oldest and most widely used, but there have always been artificial ways to stop the pain without finding out what the purpose of that pain was and what changes need to be made. The consequences of not tuning into our bodies and not making appropriate changes are always the same; a shortened life. However, ultimately (and ironically), we eventually experience that pain regardless.
When Shary and I started having babies and subsequently teaching childbirth classes, we learned that painkillers were not always necessary and could actually be harmful to God’s natural plan for mothers, babies and birth. In a childbirth seminar at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon, we heard a pharmacist explain that painkillers do not kill pain at all, but only postpone it. They only provide a dam for the pain. Eventually, when the medication wears off, the pain is still experienced. Now, am I advocating that you never use pain medications? No! I am advocating that we don’t use pain medications or any drug as a substitute for making God-directed changes in our lifestyle.
At the age of Ten, I broke my arm wrestling at a youth activity night. I didn’t know what I had done initially, I only knew it hurt. The adult supervisor thought it was only a bruise so he swung my arm around a few times just to loosen it up. When I got home, my mom took one look at me, and rushed me to the hospital. The doctor tried to set it in place without medication, but soon found that that would be impossible. He didn’t want to be killed by a ten year old. I was very thankful for the medication. Thankfully the pain had already done its job…
- It immobilized me, so I wouldn’t do any more damage.
- It motivated me to find out what the problem was and get it fixed.
- And it made me a little bit more careful with the body God gave me.
What I suggest, is that we let pain accomplish those three things, before we turn to a lifestyle of pain postponers!
1 Corinthians 6:15 “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.”
God is serious about how he wants us to take care of the body he has given us. He has placed mechanisms in our body to protect it from abuse. Without drugs, it is virtually impossible to force ourselves to walk on a broken leg. We can only push ourselves to do it if we use something to block the pain, but should we?
Proverbs 23:19-33 “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. “They hit me”, you will say, “but I am not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?”
Pain killers have been shown to stunt emotional growth. [7]
Alcohol and drugs are just pain postponers that allow us to keep going when pain would have normally made us stop and fix the problem. It is widely known that people who use alcohol and drugs (legal drugs included) on a regular basis, are halted in their emotional maturity at the point that they started using. For instance, if a young woman began using alcohol or drugs at the age of 14, whether it was for emotional pain or physical pain, it makes no difference. When she stopped using at the age of 29, she would still have the maturity of a 14 year-old. Pain is part of the maturing process. When we eliminate pain through drugs or alcohol, we do not take the appropriate steps or make the appropriate changes that bring about maturity. According to 1 Peter 4:1b…
“whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.”
If we always turn to pain medications to eliminate suffering, we will never grow into mature Christians. I am not advocating that we cause ourselves pain, or like some faiths, do pennants which are self-inflicted suffering, that is not what Christ came to promote. We don’t need to create suffering for ourselves, there is plenty of pain in life without adding to it. But in Hebrews chapter 12 we are told to treat all suffering as discipline. If we treat it like discipline, analyzing our pain, and respond by altering our behavior, it will create in us Godly maturity.
If you have a headache, it is better to sit, relax and try to figure out what caused it. Was it the caffeine you drank? Is it some stress in your life, have you not had sufficient sleep lately? The headache is there to get you to stop and analyze the cause. Most medicines only treat the symptoms instead of the cause. If you do not find out what caused the pain it will continue, and eventually lower your immune system’s ability to fight diseases, shortening your life. If you have knee pain, instead of getting cortisone shots you need to find out what you are doing that is causing your knees to wear out. Or you need to eat food or take supplements that will rebuild the cartilage in your knees.[5] One man in his fifties, went to the doctor, his right knee was badly swollen. After it was examined, he asked the doctor what was causing his right knee to hurt so much. The doctor told him it was just getting old. After a short pause the man said, “doctor I’m pretty sure my left knee is the same age. It is not how old you are, it is what are you are doing to your knee, or what vitamins and minerals are you missing. Jack LaLanne was still a physical specimen in his nineties because he ate the foods God said to eat, he avoided the foods God said to avoid and he got adequate exercise.
If you want to grow old, like Jack LaLanne, with health and strength, you will have to avoid drugs and depend more on your body’s ability to signal problems that need addressing. About 40 years ago I stopped taking aspirin, I started figuring out what was causing my headaches, consequently, I haven’t had a headache in years. If you want to live life without headaches, without disease, if you want to be strong at 90, then join us. Somebody is going to be headache free, might as well be you! Somebody is going to be happy and strong at 90, might as well be you!
- Pharmacia (Drugs) Are Not Your Savior,
- Doctors Are Not Gods.
- You Must Take Responsibility For Your Own Health!
Our purpose for writing each week is to providing you with biblical advice on the care and feeding of your body. We do it because this advice is so rare. We also do it, because we see thousands of good Christians, whose lives have been cut short, simply because they were never taught what the Word of God and the Law of God had to say about health and wellness.
If you believe God knows best, join us and the Wellness Gospel team; register for our weekly newsletter, then spread the word by sharing this with your friends on social media and may God bless you richly.
If you want to keep improving your health, and enjoy this kind of biblical scientific information, then I would like to recommend three must-read books.
- “None of These Diseases” by S. I. McMillen, M.D. and David E. Stern, M.D http://tinyurl.com/hh7ezs2
- “Let’s Play Doctor” by Dr. Joel Wallac http://tinyurl.com/j8ybt8r
- “God’s Guide To Biblical Health and Healing” by Rev. Chris & Shary Schauermann http://tinyurl.com/zvkbfau
You can get all these books at Amazon.com or simply click on the URL under each book title.
References
- http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Jack-LaLanne-fitness-pioneer-dies-at-96-2531127.php#photo-2065323
- Drug related death climbs to all time high. http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/09/overdose-deaths-in-us-2015/
- Picture of teen overdosed at school http://theaddictsattic.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2015 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released December, 2016. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2015, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucdicd10.html..
- Re-grow cartilage in your knees http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/10/01/vitamins-minerals-2/
- Arthritis http://wellnessgospel.net/index.php/2016/10/01/vitamins-minerals-2/
- http://www.rehabs.com/does-adolescent-addiction-really-stunt-emotional-maturity/