You’ve got some nerve! That is never spoken as a compliment and is typically intended for those who have said or done something with unwarranted audacity. I can hear The Grinch castigating Cindy Lou Who who appeared in his cave by saying, “Hello little girl. How dare you enter the Grinch’s lair. The impudence! The audacity! The unmitigated gall!”
Well, we’ve all got a lot of nerve – nerves, that is.
Scientists tell us that we have over 46 miles of nerves and over 100 billion nerve cells in the brain alone!1 Those nerves are divided up into the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). While much is known about the nervous system, there is a whole lot more that is not known.
The longest nerve in the human body is giving some of you a problem right now: the sciatic nerve. “The longest and widest nerve in the human body is the sciatic nerve, which stretches from our lower back to our pelvis, then down the back of each thigh and through our legs, as far down as the heels of our feet. At its widest, the sciatic nerve is almost 2 centimeters in diameter. We have this nerve to thank for allowing us to walk, run, stand, and feel sensations in our legs.”2 We also have this nerve to thank when we have excruciating pain from the lower back down to our feet!
Pain receptors throughout our body provide warnings for a variety of dangerous stimuli. Without nerves, we would feel no pain. We would also have no feeling at all. “Our skin receptors register pain — as well as touch, warmth, and cold — and send corresponding signals to the brain. Of these receptors, the ones that register pain are the most numerous. Every square centimeter of our skin contains around 200 pain receptors, in comparison to 15 receptors for pressure, six for cold, and just one for warmth.”3
Where do you suppose the most sensitive areas to pain are located on our bodies? I was shocked to learn that it is the forehead and the fingertips. Researchers at the University College of London used lasers to produce painful stimuli on 26 human test subjects. Pain was produced all across their bodies for this study.4 Makes you wonder about some people, doesn’t it??
My guess is that the majority who are reading this devotional have some sort of pain 
and you don’t want any more. Sinus pressure and weather changes, joints and muscles have your nerves sparking pain from head to toe. You are living in agreement with Romans 8:22-23. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (23) And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
Paul expressed similar sentiment in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: (3) If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. (4) For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”
The apostle suffered greatly. I imagine that as he neared the end of his life, his body was a shell of the robust physique he once had. The beatings, floggings, and trips to jail left his body scarred, crippled, and arthritic. Paul’s nerves must have seared with pain as he tried to do simple, everyday tasks.
However, Paul wasn’t going to allow the pain to stop him. There was too much to do for the Lord. Those nerves were just going to have to be ignored. And I have to believe that Paul, having been a good Pharisee, was well familiar with what David said in the Old Testament. “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)
What is the source of that joy? First, it comes from knowing Jesus. Second, it comes from knowing the future. Revelation 21:4 says, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
Pain will eventually be a thing of the past and in Heaven, there won’t even be a lingering twinge or memory of the pain from this life. What a joyful day that is going to be! “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” (Revelation 21:5)
1https://www.sciencecare.com/blog/inside-the-human-body-its-complicated
2https://interestingfacts.com/shocking-facts-about-the-nervous-system/?lctg=e6fd7449-4b4d-4d27-9340-7ad6e03075f2
3Ibid.
4https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25688-fingertips-and-forehead-are-most-sensitive-to-pain/
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