Well we have made through Easter and now we are pushing into a new week. Each new week has new experiences, and new opportunities. That makes me think about how I have recently felt on my trips to the gym. New pains, not bad pains mind you, but new ones none the less. It seems like the gym is more about me pushing through the pain now, then it is about feeling better. I know that in time that will change, hopefully.
On some reflection I have come to the conclusion that my pains are not due to anything more then two factors. First, my age - my body has functioned in the same way for over 30 years. It does not move in certain ways, and it never has. Secondly, I have muscles all over my body that I have never used, or rarely used at best. That means when I begin to work them they are going to hurt because they are being stretched in new and different ways, or being placed under strain for the first time in a long time.
My growth with God is the same. It is not that the work itself is hard, it is that it is new that makes it painful at times. The ability / capacity to do something has always been there, but I have never worked in that particular way before. When I do new things there will be some pain due to the different work and the new growth that is required to accomplish it.
Like my individual self, when a church, or the body of Christ as a whole, begins to grow in new and varied directions then it begins to have some pain. It is doing things it is not use too, or doing more of something it has done lightly in the past, or maybe even doing the same things in new ways. All three of these situations lead to new or different pains.
The result however of all three of the above situations, me personally at the gym, my personal growth with God, and a church/ the body of Christ growing, are the same in the end. Over time all three become adjusted to the new work, the new habits, and the new patterns, and then we become able to do the work easily. When we look back later we rarely remember the pain that we went through to master our new skills. What we will remember in the future will be the increased capacity and skill that we gained by working through the pain.
This is the thing that I am trying to focus on. Short term pain leads to long term skills. School is that way, I survived it. Learning to program / code was that way, I made it. Learning to read and write was that way, though at times you may ask if I really mastered the second. My point is that in time the pain and frustration that we are experiencing now will be forgotten when we succeed in the future.
It is like the new born baby, few mothers talk of the pain of birth with regret once they sees their child. In time we at will look back and we will remember these times of struggle and pain as the very times that forged the steel that we build our future designs on. What a thing to rejoice about.Acts 26:15 "Then I asked, `Who are you, Lord?'Have a great day, and rejoice in the pain that leads to the promises of God. I know it is tough at times. I know this because it is and has been tough on me at times, but we are not in this struggle alone. We are in this with the rest of the body of Christ, and we are being guided by the Holy Spirit.
" `I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. 16 `Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'
Paul was blinded, obviously scary - if not directly pained he was definitely stressed, but that short term discomfort lead Him to a new vision for His life. Once He made it past the Damascus road experience He was able to look back to it as a time of change, but not one of regret, that lead to his eventual successes in Christ. Something to think about as you struggle through the new work and labors that you come across this week.
