They used to say no pain no gain. How true is it really ? What if one had too much pain to handle? And really what could one possibly gain? We hear about people and what they have to go through in life and we say, I’m glad I’m not that person. But there is also another saying that says, there is always someone worse off than you. If that is true then there is someone still worse off than them. When does it stop, and who is so worse off that they have no one else worse than them?
Ingrid Andress, from her album Pain, says this “Without the pain, how would you know what things to change, what stays the same and which parts of you still have to grow. It can be ruthless, yeah I’ve been there too, but you’re gonna get through this.”
This is a great song. Not everyone is strong, people can be weak and that is Ok. But life is not to sit back and observe. No! We must participate in life. And life is not a spectator sport. We all play the game. Because we are all participants in life then we must all help one another get through the difficult time of life. This is what love is, helping one another, encouraging one another, even carrying one another’s burden. Everyone is going to feel pain one time or another. Not only physical pain, but emotional pain and we are going to need people to help us through to maybe just sit and listen, maybe give a helping hand. Whichever it may be it will require something of us to give. Today I help you and tomorrow you may be helping me, but this is what life is all about. This is what love is all about, this is what being a human being is all about. We all live on this planet and we all have a life to live. I can’t live it without you and you can’t live it without me. No one should go through any kind of pain alone, but as the song says, without the pain, how would we know what things to change and what stays the same and what part of us still has to grow? You see when we go through hard times we think that God is a mean God. Why has God allowed this to happen? I thought God was a God of love? This is what His Word says about going through the pain. “So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as His children? My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child He loves that He disciplines; the child He embraces, He also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children.” Hebrews 12:6 Pain is for us to grow and that is what God tells us, “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-4
Do you know what else happens under pressure? Turn on the heat and the pressure and Carbon turns into a diamond. Don’t give up, you too, will become a diamond and you will sparkle in your victory.