Pain

Tonight was my first night of ice skating lessons. I'm super excited about the lessons and am enjoying it thoroughly. I joined mostly to get exercise and become a better skater. My teacher helped me learn some new skills to work on and congratulated me for passing a few of them already! (I'm already to a Beta level). After my lessons were over and I was back at home on my couch I realized: My legs are in pain! My fingers are in pain (I scraped some skin off pulling my laces tight)! And it got me to thinking...I'm rather excited about this pain! Yes, it hurts (I hope I can walk tomorrow), but its good. I know I am working my muscles and my body is getting stronger. It hurts, but its worth it.

It a lot like life...there is a lot of pain in life. Most of it is good in the end because it shows that we are "working our muscles", that we are growing (maybe spiritually, emotionally, socially, etc). Where there is physical pain, physical growth or strength often follows. The bad (fat) goes away and reveals a stronger, healthier body. In life, when there is pain, bad stuff is often released to reveal a stronger, healthier life.

Now, sometimes physical pain is due to a poor move...slipping and falling may cause you to break your arm (which is painful) but that pain doesn't help you grow...it is due to you doing something wrong. Sometimes pain in our life is because we aren't following God. We have turned away and because of that are experiencing pain. When we turn back to God, our pain may go away or become the first type of pain I talked about.

We have been conditioned to think that pain is bad, but that is not always the case. Pain can be good. Thank you, God, for pain!