The Potential of Pain

(Mental Hygiene Series)

3.     “I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.” (Clyde Kilby)

When I was a teenager, the first word I uttered on waking up was “Crap!” I’m not sure how I got into this bad habit. As the alarm went off, I would wake up already tired, knowing I would have to hurry to get through all the things I had to do. I would dread the day ahead. I would wish I could just go back to sleep.

These days, I wake up without an alarm. I try to start each morning with prayer. I’m aware that the next 24 hours will probably bring trouble. Yet, I remind myself that there will be potential for moral and spiritual growth in this pain. Sure, I would like to go back to sleep, to be unaware, to remain stagnant. However, this is not an option. Each day brings the possibility of either climbing up the ladder of maturity or descending it.

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Rom. 12:1-2 MSG)