Bring on the Pain

Raise your hand if you love a good conflict? I see very few hands raised . . . Our society spends half of its existence trying to avoid pain at all costs, so the answer to my question was pretty predictable. I, too, spent many, many years trying to keep everything between the ditches as to avoid a pain inducing wreck. But as I consider the lessons I’ve learned over the last year, one of the greatest has been the value of pain and conflict.

I would go so far as to say that we Americans completely undervalue pain and conflict. We shrink in fear from it while we should be embracing it. Why, you say? Because each time we enter into a time of trial, be it in a relationship, the loss of a job, or an illness, we also walk through the doors of a growth campaign. Being stretched outside of our comfort zones enables us to open our minds and expand our horizons.

Further more, pain and conflict, encourage us to look up. We often end up in situations that are too difficult to bear alone and in these times, our most loving Lord is there waiting with open arms for us to call on his name. We are so busy in our every day lives that often forget to pray, considering what the Lord is up to in our lives. In a crisis though, our knee jerk instinct is to ask for help, thereby opening our eyes to seeing what he is doing.

This my friends, is a very good thing. And so again, I assert, we should all welcome conflict. Embrace it as a learning and growing experience! With the holidays upon us, there is bound to be tension with family and friends and stress from shopping and trying to get it all together in time. I would encourage you this holiday season, to not only pray your way through these times of difficulty, but also to recognize the tough times as opportunity and later to reflect on what you learned and how you grew.