No Pain, No Gain!

Mercy VineyardBlog

Pain.

I’ve become quite familiar with it over the last few months, and today is an especially bad back pain day.  I’ve learned to push through the pain though, not let it stop me.  Sometimes Wendy chimes in as the voice of reason and tells me to take it easy.  What a gift she is!

The truth is, though, that the work has to get done.  If I stop because of pain, the bills don’t get paid, the chores don’t get done, and the church plant falls behind.

Emotional pain is similar.  When we’re hurting, we want to stop.  We also try to avoid situations that cause pain, and even avoid certain people.

It’s funny how, when God allows us to go through things that cause us to grow, they usually hurt.  A word of correction, a role we’re not quite ready to fill, or a challenge to give more.  They all bring pain, but they’re really good for us.

I once heard Sam Chand say that our willingness to endure pain determines how much we grow.  How right he was!  Growth hurts, plain and simple.  And once we decide we’ve had enough, we stop growing.  We remove ourselves from the challenging situation and the growth process stops.

I think it’s great how everyone we’ve met with about filling a role on the launch team has mentioned how the role will cause them to “stretch and grow”.  Let me add that it will probably bring some amount of pain too. Also let me encourage you by saying God will bless you and grow you through it.  You will become a better servant, leader, and follower of Jesus if you choose to endure and let it shape you.  As my mentor used to tell me, it’s heat and pressure that turns coal into a diamond.

We are all becoming diamonds together!  How awesome is that!!

Thank you all for enduring alongside of me!  We’re doing it for a great prize (changed lives and a transformed city!)

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. ” – James 1:3-4