No Pain, No Gain

I remember growing up playing sports. It always seemed that inevitably, when someone would start to complain, the coach would always say, "No pain, no gain." Which, was supposed to mean that if you ever wanted to get better you had to put up with a little discomfort along the way. I'm not sure that I was particularly motivated by this saying, but it is true.

If you want to grow you must change, and change always hurts. I know that in so many areas of life. When it comes to running, biking, and swimming, I'm trying to get back into shape after a 2009 that was filled with a series of freak injuries (not to mention the fact that we had our first child). And it's tough. Running four miles right now seems way too hard, at least, way to hard competitively. But I know that if I want to get back into the kind of shape that I enjoy, and if I really want to do that half-ironman triathlon I've been looking at, then I must be willing to endure the pain needed to change.

I also realize that this is true when it comes to relationships as well. Both relationships with people, and our relationship with God. Soon my wife and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary. I really have to say that our marriage has been great, but like any couple, there is still (and will always be) room for growth. We've been talking lately, and we both really want to grow, but that's easier said than done. For us to grow each of us is going to have to change some things, and that will hurt.

The same is true when it comes to our faith. It seems like we are constantly told that God can do all things - and that's true. But for some reason we think that the fact that God can do all things means that God will do all things. We also have a tendency to think that God's primary concern is to do good in "my" life. I find it interesting that when Jesus taught us to pray he taught us to pray that "God's will be done" even if that goes against our desires. So, what can happen when we put these two strains of thought together is that we begin to think that if we just pray real hard God will magically accomplish change in our lives while we sleep. However, in reality, God calls us to "work out" our salvation. God does do the miraculous in our live - he frees us from our sins, but God also expects us to respond to His grace in active ways. I suppose when I think of all of this, my prayer is that of Jeremiah:

"I know, Lord, that a person's life is not his own. No one is able to plan his own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle."