TGIF

I take great pride in being tough, so when the nurse asked me if I wanted a painkiller I declined.

However, pride is a sin and my sin found me out and I soon hit the red button to call the nurse back to accept her offer.

I’m not as tough as I thought I was.

The nurse was not angry that I changed my mind….in fact she knew I would.

Pain had crushed my will and made me a compliant patient.

Unfortunately, that’s how life works most of the time.

One of my favorite sayings in counseling is “when pain exceeds payoff, positive change occurs”.

When something hurts more than whatever pleasure you get from doing that something, you’ll stop doing it.

A great deal of counseling is simply waiting for pain to exceed payoff in the one being counseled.

Usually, the pain has to be intense…we’re not always the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Pain is actually both a gift from God and a result of the fall.

It’s a sign that something is wrong in either body or soul or both.

You can ignore it and hope it goes away or you can acknowledge it and deal with the problem.

I usually choose to ignore it.

I don’t want to take the painkiller or see the physician.

I don’t, that is, until the pain becomes unbearable.

Then, I want both right now.

“Oh God make speed to save us”

“Oh Lord make haste to help us”

He was waiting for you to ask…

My pain is from something that needs to be cut out.

Yours might be too.

I waited.

You shouldn’t.

Make your own application…