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Sometimes Christians mistakenly believe that the path of godliness is always the most painful path possible. If God's in control (and He is), then enduring the suffering He ordains must always be the only right option. Although it is sometimes right to endure suffering, the idea that it's never right to avoid or resist pain is woefully misguided. 

In 1527, the bubonic plague struck Wittenberg, Germany, where the famous Reformer Martin Luther was pastoring. The University was closed, students were sent home, and many residents self-quarantined to avoid the deadly sickness. Meanwhile, a fellow pastor asked Luther if it was ever right to flee a deadly plague.

Luther began his lengthy response by refuting the idea that it is never right to escape harm. He wrote: “By such reasoning, when a house is on fire, no one should run outside or rush to help because such a fire is also a punishment from God. Anyone who falls into deep water dare not save himself by swimming but must surrender to the water as to a divine punishment. . . . Likewise, if someone breaks a leg, is wounded or bitten, he should not seek medical aid but say, “It is God’s punishment. I shall bear it until it heals by itself.” Freezing weather and winter are also God’s punishment and can cause death. Why run to get inside or near a fire? Be strong and stay outside until it becomes warm again. We should then need no apothecaries or drugs or physicians because all illnesses are punishment from God. Hunger and thirst are also great punishments and torture. Why do you eat and drink instead of letting yourself be punished until hunger and thirst stop of themselves? Ultimately such talk will lead to the point where we abbreviate the Lord’s Prayer and no longer pray, “deliver us from evil, Amen,” since we would have to stop praying to be saved from hell and stop seeking to escape it.[i]  

[i] Martin Luther, “Whether One May Flee From A Deadly Plague,” in Luther’s Works, Vol. 43: Devotional Writings II, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 119–38.