Anesthesia for the Body of Christ

“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together”

- 1 Corinthians 12:26

The Bible says that we are one Body. That when one part hurts we all hurt with it.

And that’s exactly the problem, I’ve got these aches and pains all over the Body. They enter my awareness at inopportune times, they gnaw at my conscience when I’m trying to get on with life. Some of them are dull aches, rarely are they sharp. Naturally, I wouldn’t let them get that far along.

I go to a nearby pain management clinic every Sunday morning. They give me some exercises to try at home. We meet throughout the week in our support groups for sharing. They are positive, encouraging. They assure me the pain will go away as long as I keep coming back and stick to the regiment.

But I’ve got to be honest, despite all their help I can still sometimes feel pain. I mostly do all I can to medicate it away. I tried a prescription of Narrative. It calms me down and assuages my deep guilt. It convinces me that the world is out to get me and I must heroically fight on. Narrative is quite the drug, its slogan is “flip the script on your anxiety”. It convinces me that, in fact, I am the victim! I am the aggrieved! I am the one who is being punched down upon! Its active ingredients include self-justification and a sense of purpose driven by rage.

When my script for Narrative runs out I call up my dealer. They peddle a powerful street drug known as Moral Outrage. Outrage is a synthetic combination of ego enhancement encapsulated in concern for others. When I use it I can feel an uptick in my heart rate and activity level. I get high and move fast. There is a clarity that comes along with it. It gives me sweet respite from sensitivity. Yet I find myself needing ever increasing amounts of it to achieve the same effect. As its efficacy diminishes the Body pain comes roaring back. My tolerance for discomfort and tension diminishes, stubbed toes start to feel like broken bones.

My dealer is also a pimp. So they set me up with a few Companions. The Companions tell me what I already know, they reinforce again and again that I know the way. They remind me I’m special, called, set aside, chosen. They whisper loveliness in my ear through the night.

In the morning I’m coming down from my Outrage bender. It is a hard and dreadful crash. I need something more, so I elect for Distraction. Luckily it is sold on almost every street corner. At the local shop I pick up a few of my favorite flavors of Distraction and spend the rest of the day pleasuring myself with their tiny delights. If I can just make life serene enough, just make it comfortable enough… if I can manage all possible contingencies… maybe I can make this pain from the hurting Body Parts disappear.

I have done all I can to anesthetize these pained Parts of my Body. I erected fences and moved to greener pastures. I bought insurances and passed legislation. I printed pamphlets and passed out sandwiches. I measured out 10 mgs of Distraction, put it in my pillbox so I won’t forget to take it every four hours.

I tried to medicate away the suffering of these Parts. I went to the opium den of religion. Smoked hash with a shepherd who doesn’t disturb me. Instead he tucks me in at night while I peacefully slumber.

I locked away those Parts that wouldn’t cooperate. Their imprisonment freed me up to be free. These Parts went out of sight out of mind. Their voices fell silent, no more ringing in my ears.

When the pain kept coming back I even amputated my own Body. I chopped myself up, I cut myself open, I disfigured my face. I killed those hurting Parts.

I deported those Parts that wouldn’t cooperate. I damned some other Parts to hell. I banished them back to wherever the hell they came from.

So they died.

And with them an important Part of me died too.

I obeyed the law but broke morality. Finally, in my numb, dismembered, cadaver-like state I could experience the sweetness of the unity of Christ’s church.