Pain is mandatory

(you can skip this first paragraph if you are not interested in donating. I am currently $1,575 away from my next deadline for CGA and if you would be interested in helping by donating please feel free to either reach out to me with your questions or just to do it. Any amount helps and it’s all going towards adventures in missions and ensuring they can continue to do what they do and build kingdom all around the world.)

I really hope the title or the first paragraph didn’t scare you away and if you’ve made it this far congratulations. Welcome to this weeks blog about pain. Jesus tells his disciples that there will be pain. The price of following Christ will cost you everything and it will hurt. The reason it hurts is because you’re not used to it. The word pain is one that makes most people fearful. Who likes pain, other than masochists, who? Pain sucks sometimes. But we sometimes take it for granted.

Pain is not a problem like we think it is, it is a sign of a problem. If you put your hand on the eye of a stove, and it hurts, the pain is not the problem, the fact that you just put your hand on a hot stovetop is. But if you stuck a needle in your arm to nullify your nerves, does that fix the problem? NO! Your hand still burns and dies. Without the pain you would’ve never been alerted to the problem, or let alone the fact that it’s a problem in the first place. And you certainly wouldn’t learn not to do it again. Many of us hear a metaphor like this and laugh, but most of us do this in our day to day life. Even I’ve done it and still do it. (that’s not saying much however i am only 20) Most of you probably know last spring I broke my leg in 3 places by sliding down a rock at a waterfall in Costa Rica. My first reaction after it happened was to try to get up and walk. That went about as well as you think it would’ve. I tried 3 times before I finally leaned on a rock and looked at my ankle. Would it have been smart of me to keep trying? No. Was it smart of me to try in the first place and try 2 more times unaided? Probably not. what would’ve happened if I would’ve kept trying? I would’ve made it a lot worse. If I would’ve ignored the pain, which was telling me there was a problem, I wouldn’t have known for a while there was a problem I wouldn’t have found out until someone pointed it out to me.

I’m not saying pain is necessarily good but it’s not a bad thing. I don’t want to imply that you should enjoy pain or desire to be in pain, thats a mental disorder called masochism. However, again there is a necessity for it. It can also be a sign for growth. Growing pains are a sign when you are literally growing too fast for your bones to keep up with. The problem is the lack of strength in your bones, the outcome is stronger bones. 

I could type for hours  until my fingered bled about how pain is good and not good and Bad and not bad at the same time, and make it sound like I was talking in circles and I’m not about to do that to any of you. Pain sucks and it’s supposed to but God doesn’t waste pain on his children. He uses it to teach us and like most things it’s the exception that proves the rule. When God uses pain it often brings us closer to him and it only sucks because it’s hitting the parts of us that shouldn’t be there, and he uses it to show us what shouldn’t be there. He uses it as a sign for problems in our life. Few things get someone’s attention like when something hurts.

Don’t confuse hurt and injured either. To be injured or wounded is an actual problem thats why it often hurts. See what I did there, full circle.

thank you everyone who reads these blogs and takes the time to hear what I have to say it means a lot and if you would please share this blog and get the message further please do so. Until next time.