Pain Hurts

"Some say pain is an illusion. Others say pants are. Pain is weakness leaving the body, pants are nakedness leaving the body. " Anonymous (for a reason I think)

I heard it in football, I heard it in weight lifting--play through the pain. No Pain, no gain. In someways, I understand. Don't let a little thing get in the way. In the playoffs last year, Cutler played on a broken leg. He played through the pain. In weight lifting, the pain or burn that you feel are the muscle fibers snapping under the strain. This snapping or breaking of the muscle fibers is what causes the muscles to grow bigger. The same is true in sports and conditioning. The harder you push, the pain hits and then you're body recovers and mends so that it can withstand what you put it through. But the body has limits too.

Pain also is a message to your body to stop. Fire hurts. Stop touching it. You're elbow doesn't bend that way. Stop. Other times, it is a sign that the body is healing itself. I had dental work done yesterday and boy howdy does it hurt like a kick in the head by a mule. But a lot of work was done on that section and now the body is healing and repairing and it frakin hurts like the dickens.

Pain isn't seen it's felt. And the signs of pain can be seen on people no matter how hard we try to hide it. There's also too much pain. There's diseases such as Fibromyalgia (a very real disease) which causes constant pain and fatigue. Other times there is cancer which can cause insurmountable pain that you have a hard time dealing with it.

Pain hurts.

So does emotional and spiritual pain. And that pain almost never is seen but it is strongly felt. We don't like to admit these types of pain. It shows that we are weak. That we can't handle things. We have a hard enough time admitting our physical pain, it's even harder to admit our emotional and spiritual pain.

Yet, we have a promise for healing those as well. And it can be tough. Tough to admit to ourselves and tough to admit to God. Yet, we hear these words

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Now, I'm not promising it all will be perfect, but there is a promise that you can make it through a lot better than you might be now. Jesus can change your attitude on how you deal with the pain.

Control how you deal with the pain don't let it control you.

What pain are you dealing with now? How can Jesus change the way you deal with it?