When Pain Keeps You Alive

This is a true incident that happened in Visakhapatnam several years ago.

It was a dark, stormy night in Visakhapatnam, with heavy rain pouring down and thick darkness covering the city. At that time, Brother Suresh was simply a believer who was growing in the Lord. Today, he is serving God. While he was riding his bike home, the road became almost impossible to see because of the heavy rain and darkness. Suddenly, he lost control of his bike and fell into a deep ditch beside the road.

He suffered severe injuries all over his body. His bones were badly affected, and he began losing blood. Nobody passing along the road knew that a man was lying helplessly in that dark ditch, fighting for his life.

In the freezing cold and unbearable pain, he somehow managed to reach the mobile phone in his hand and call his family. He told them, “I have fallen into a ditch somewhere along this route. I have suffered serious injuries, but I cannot clearly tell you exactly where I am.”

In that helpless condition, large ants from the ditch began spreading all over his body. Hundreds of ants started biting his open wounds, face, hands, and other injured areas. The pain at that moment must have been indescribable.

Perhaps deep within his heart he cried out, “God, I am already bleeding badly. I feel like I am dying. Can’t You at least allow me to have a few moments of peace? Why this pain from these ants? Why this additional suffering?”

Eventually, his family found him in the ditch and rushed him to the hospital in a critical condition.

After examining him in the emergency department, the doctors said something that left everyone astonished.

According to the doctors, considering the severity of his injuries and the amount of blood he had lost, he should have already become unconscious and entered a critical state. But the continuous sharp pain caused by the ant bites kept stimulating his brain and nervous system and helped him remain responsive. In that sense, the painful ant bites unexpectedly became part of what helped keep him alive until he was found and treated.

This testimony opens the spiritual eyes of every believer.

In our own journey of life, we too may sometimes fall into deep “ditches” of unexpected trouble. As if the major suffering were not enough, small irritations, accusations, insults, disappointments, and painful words may begin to bite us like those ants.

We may cry out, “God, I am already struggling with financial problems. I am already suffering with this difficult situation. Why must I also endure the pain caused by people’s words and these additional troubles?”

But there is a spiritual truth we should understand.

When a person suffers a major wound in life, it is easy to enter a kind of spiritual “coma.” We can become inactive in our faith, stop praying, lose hope, and allow our spiritual life to fall asleep.

Sometimes God permits certain small pains and difficulties to keep us spiritually awake—to make us continue seeking His presence, crying out to Him, and holding tightly to His grace.

The Apostle Paul spoke about a “thorn” in his flesh that God allowed in his life so that he would not become proud. In the same way, some painful experiences in our lives may serve a greater spiritual purpose.

For those who love God, all things work together for good.

That additional pain that is hurting you has not necessarily come to destroy you. It may be permitted to keep you from falling asleep spiritually and to make you hold more firmly to the grace of God.

No matter how deep the ditch you are in may be, and no matter how unbearable the pain may feel, stand firm in faith.

God is able to use circumstances, people, and even things we do not understand to accomplish His purpose and preserve our lives.

There may be a great heavenly purpose hidden behind the darkness you are experiencing today.

So, do not give up.

The pain may be real, but God’s purpose is greater.

The tears may be real, but His grace is sufficient.

The situation may look like the end, but God can still turn it into a testimony.

“The LORD has chastened me severely, but He has not given me over to death.”

Psalm 118:18