The older I get… the more I hurt.  What is that magical age where we cross over from waking up feeling relaxed and waking up with aches?   I remember a time when I could ride 10 miles on my bike, play tackle football, and wrestle with my brother… and laugh all the way.  If I did that now… I would injure something for sure… and pain would follow.

Have you noticed that pain has a way of manipulating the way we live our life?  It ends up telling us how we will respond and participate in the things we do.  Pain guides our moves in a very subtle way.  If you ask a physical therapist, orthopedic physician, or sports trainer, they will confirm… pain is a symptom of an injury.  If an injury is left untreated, it will result in a “re-wiring” of sorts that conditions you to work around the pain.  An injury left untreated will eventually stop radiating pain… not because it’s better, but because we’ll change the way we live to avoid aggravating it again.  This type of avoidance will ultimately end up causing stress injuries to other parts of your body as they take over for the injured area and perform tasks they weren’t designed to carry out.

Our spiritual and emotional lives mirror the same physical response .  At some point in our lives we encounter spiritual injuries that are just too deep to fix with a band aid.  We begin to reshape our life around the injury to avoid aggravating the wound…never really living our life at 100%.  Over time, we begin to feel stress and pressure in areas of our life that wasn’t designed to carry that load and we wonder why things aren’t working out.

What injured you?  Verbal abuse? Sexual abuse?  Abandonment?  Physical abuse?  Shame and humiliation?  What injured you?

You need to know that you are human.  You need to know that God can heal those deep, soul injuries.  You need to be honest with God and share your pain with Him.  He knows you hurt… and He is able to heal.  But if you aren’t willing to seek help… you won’t make progress.

Christ Jesus came to earth as fully man and the son of God.  He experienced physical pain to the point of death.  He experienced emotional pain as His cousin John the Baptist was murdered, He was mocked, He was ridiculed, betrayed, and He was not given any respect by the elders in His community.  Christ Jesus had injuries, both physical and emotional, so you can’t think that God doesn’t understand how you feel.

The best part of being a follower of Christ and child of God is that when I am injured (whether by my own stupidity or by the acts of others) I can allow God to heal me.  Doing this allows me the opportunity to live at my fullest potential and experience life most abundantly.  Some injuries take time to heal.

Hear this.  You will be injured.  You will not walk out of the battle without pain.  There is no promise that your life as a Christian man will be easy, without pain, and carefree.  In fact, you better prepare for the pain to come.  Just be aware that you are not invincible and that you do have weak spots in your armor.  God is able to heal and bring you back into health.  Push through the pain and take the steps necessary to heal, and for the pain you receive in battle for God, consider this:

19For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. 20But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
1 Peter 2:19-20

May you be aware of the pain that has shaped your life to now.  Find a quiet place and talk to God about where and how you hurt.  Allow Him to nurse you back to life so you can live it more abundantly.  And by all means, stop being a “dude” and ignoring the hurt.  The macho attitude doesn’t make you better, nor does it heal.  Deal with it, fix it, and move on… just don’t ignore it.  Christ didn’t ignore the pain, he prayed about it.  What do you do?
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