Does pain bring clarity?

I got up today with a sore quad – again. I was frustrated and angry that biking yesterday seemed to bring on just a bit too much soreness. My sister and I plan to run three 5ks in 24 hours next weekend, so I need to be healed!
My mediocre mood continued until I found myself sitting, as quietly as possible, in the corner of a room full of men discussing how they found out they had cancer. As I listened, I felt more and more ashamed.
These guys know pain.
They know emotional agony and they know excruciating physical pain thanks to having doctors cut out tumors growing on their brains, their kidneys, their prostates and their throats.
“My body is all kind of cut up,” said one man. “I decided after my first two surgeries, I could either be a victim or be a victor…Pain is one of the greatest gifts of all because pain brings clarity. You know what you want.”

I want to be a victor. I want to run, and more than just plodding along, I want to run with gratitude. This man is living with a death sentence, but he’s heard that he won’t live more than a few months nine times in the last few years.
“I have done things, like really start to live,’ he said. Fly-fishing with his daughters, enjoying each day, grateful for how beautiful life really is.
“It’s not up to me how long I live,” he said. “It’s really what I do right now.”