The Treasure of Pain

As Americans we've been lied to. We've been told that to be happy is to be made much of. Therefore, we live with a great fortitude and determination to build happiness. Which is mainly acted out in a very simplistic fasion: To avoid pain.

We rarely take risks, unless the risk itself will benefit our facade or our brand. But, if the motivation for our risk taking is purely to benefit our image or our good standing then it's more manipulation than it is risk. True risk is only done with selfless motivation. But, that's a subject for another time.

Have you noticed that no one takes the hard road? When our lives aren't what we need them to be for others to exalt us, we move, quit, or start over. We immediately put all our energy into protecting our reputation - then we do everything within our power to avoid any and all pain.

It's not to gain pleasure or joy that we drink too much, smoke pot, progress to harder drugs, cutting, anorexia, spend hours of our lives playing video games, or sleep around. It's to avoid pain and this is the road most traveled by our generation because it is the easiest road to travel. The problem is this:

You can't experience growth without pain, and without growth there is no life.

That does mean you pursue pain to experience life, it means you steward it. But this can only be done if you understand how loved you are and who you were created to be. This is critical, otherwise there's no hope.
The son or daughter of the only true God -"Fearfully and wonderfully woven together" (Psalm 139:14).

If you know in your heart (not just your theologically astute head) that you're perfectly loved by an awesome, omniscient, and sovereign God, then you're able to steward pain because prefect love casts out fear. You don't have to fear that pain.

See, God isn't holding out on you. He never has. He's trying to get your attention because he has so much better for you. He promised good. And, he died to fulfill that promise.

See, our Earthly pleasures are a hint of what's to come in heaven. The peace, joy, laughter, and rest we enjoy on earth is not only an echo, but proof of what's to come next.

I don't think God's will for your life involves what you do for a living, where you live, or what you accomplish. God's will for your life is to discover who you were created to be and be that person wherever you are, because when you discover who you were created to be you start to come alive, and then, and only then, do you experience life instead of just live it.

Ask God what's he's trying to birth in your heart. For, if our hearts stop growing we are already dead anyway.

Don't run from pain. Steward the treasure.