Recently Andy had to have some oral surgery. I was reading the aftercare leaflet and noticed that the first instruction on the leaflet was, start your pain relief before the numbness wears off. As I read this, I was reminded of a major surgery I had many years ago. I am now left with a large albeit faded scar. The thing about scars is they can be seen, but there shouldn’t be any residual pain. But at the time I needed very potent pain relief, and I spoke to the nurse to query how much I should be taking. She assured me that I was taking the right dosage and not to be concerned. She said, “Why be in pain when you don’t have to be, you don’t heal up any quicker while suffering.”
Sometimes within the environment of a church community ‘pain’ or ‘suffering’ is held up as a badge of honour. There is a false sense of the more we endure the more spiritual or holy we are. There is an attitude of enduring and carrying all our pain and suffering while singing Kum ba yah is acceptable. Whereas Jesus says Matthew 11:28-30 28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” He says come to me. Rest in me. He is the author of pain relief, through his words, the healing balm of truth, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
In the natural we accept being given 4 hourly doses of medication as the norm. We trust the medical professionals who prescribe them. As believers in Jesus how much more should we accept the daily prescribed relationship with Jesus (Matthew 6:25-34). We are given a gift of 24 hours each day to do with as we chose. We can’t change yesterday and we can’t predict tomorrow. So those 24 hours are the hours at hand to do with what we want.
On this journey of living life on mission, we are working in new rhythms. Our days are different than before. We are free to make our own arrangements and set our own work pattern. As we build in these new rhythms into our day we want to make it as healthy as possible. Also being in the older age bracket we need to take care of ourselves not only for now but for the future. We met someone who is turning 80 later in the year and he belied his age by a good 20-25 years. He said he was fitter now than 30 years ago and was about to do a charity skydive from 15,000ft falling at 120mph! He was inspirational to say the least. His story is one of faith and obedience. It’s looking to those who have gone before and seeing the testimony of their journey that inspires and spurs us on (Hebrews 11, Hebrews 12:1-3). So now our rhythm is to spend time in His presence, to take our daily meds and find healing and strength in His word. As we go forward, we want to live in step with the Holy Spirit and trust that we will live deeper and go further.
Featured photo by Ben White on Unsplash
"Live to Serve" 