Pain and Purpose

Being a high contemplator, I spend a lot of time examining the circumstances that I find myself in. That doesn’t always mean I have a good solution, just that I’m thinking about it. Quite honestly, I’m still trying to figure things out. It seems like every time I think I have reached a stable place, God opens another door of my heart and reveals a deeper understanding of how far I still have to go. It seems, for the last several years, God has had me in this place of perpetual pressing. It didn’t start with the loss of our daughter, that was just the catapult that launched me over the wall.

What I have found, though, is that pain is an interesting study. If we can step back and look at it objectively (which is difficult when we’re in the midst of it, I will admit) we’ll find that pain is a first responder. It’s the first one on the scene calling for help and setting out the flares. Without pain, we would just go about our lives with open wounds and infections – many times without an urgency to find healing. Pain forces us to either give up and quit or face the problem and find a solution.

Unfortunately, for too many of us, we quit. And I get it, in the midst of the pain it seems like the easiest solution. The problem with that choice, however, is we never allow the pain to finish the work in our lives that it is created to do. We even tell people that are struggling through something painful that they have to “find a way to move on.” We get uncomfortable when their pain seems to go on for longer than we think it should. The reality is that there are wounds that don’t heal in one or two years – or even five or six. Everyone’s journey is different. In fact, I would be more concerned with someone who seems to have just “moved on” than someone I see still “fighting through.”

Our goal should not be to move on from our pain. Our goal should be to move through it. Sometimes, that’s a longer journey. It takes effort, determination, and a whole lot of Jesus. Our goal is restoration and renewal, not an escape from the pain. The path that we are on is a path of healing. It doesn’t always look that way because there is sweat, struggle and pain in the process. From the outside, it looks like we’re losing the battle sometimes (and it definitely feels that way most days) BUT, we if we are moving forward, we will get better with every step. We will get tired and fall down along the way, and that’s okay, as long as we get back up and keep moving toward our healing.

Here’s the thing about this journey through pain – you won’t look the same as you did when you started. You will be different. You will be changed. I am not the same person I was 5 years ago. I don’t see the world the same as I did. Things that I once thought were huge, I now see them as small or insignificant. I’m much more introspective and I weigh the value of things more closely. I’m not as quick to speak and I think I’ve gotten better at listening (although my wife might have some things to say about that). And, if I’m honest, there is a sadness in me that I will carry for a long time. But here’s the biggest change in my life: This world no longer has a hold on me. I am no longer hoping for a long life, I’m anxious for HIS return. The Kingdom of God has greater meaning to me than ever before. Here’s another thing: I am more aware than ever of the limited amount of time I have in this life and the urgency with which I must live what is left for the Kingdom of God.

Pain has been instrumental in bringing me to this point – and it’s not done with me yet. If it takes pain to move me into purpose, then I will receive it with open arms, because I know there is a day coming when “he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. “ Revelation 21:4

In the meantime, I will move through every obstacle, fear, and pain towards healing. Endurance is the key. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness (endurance). And let steadfastness (endurance) have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4

Did you know?

Failure, pain, disappointment, and loss are not the end of the journey. Many times they are simply the beginning of a new one. It can be a journey that takes you to surprising and exciting destinations if you let it. More than anything, however, they are the stepping stones to becoming something better, something stronger, something more like Jesus; but there will be pain. Pain is very much a part of the process, it’s actually necessary for proper growth and maturity. If we can learn to embrace the pain and let it do its work in us, we will find hope in it

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

I have fallen and I have failed in this journey. Thank you for being there to help me pick up the pieces. Take them and build something better, stronger, and more like you. Build something that will stand when the struggles and storms of life come. Build something that will draw the brokenhearted and beaten down. Let me be a building others will be able to run into. Make me like you. I love you. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

Peace.

“The little troubles and worries of life may be as stumbling blocks in our way, or we may make them stepping-stones to a nobler character and to Heaven. Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.”

Henry Ward Beecher