Pain is a Tool

What are the evidences of the aging process that are part of your current season of life? How do they impact your life view?


For me, it's the chronology of life that has more of an impact than anything else. 50 years old is coming and that, to me, is a bigger deal than 30 or 40 ever was in my mind. I can do the math, and if God allows me to live to 80, that's only 30 more years. That's a drop in the bucket, particularly looking back on the last 30 years and how relatively fast they've gone by, like the morning mist.


Vernon Grounds made the observation of how there are people that long for release from the body due to the inevitable entropy in our bodies. Paul said our bodies are wasting away, and that seems like foolishness to young campers, but resonates with others.


Pain may actually pave the way for a graceful departure, though I've rarely seen that. Cancer doesn't dispense grace and it ravages people. Ecclesiastes 12:1-14

So, build on the rock, because the storms do come and are no respecter of persons.


However, pain also gives us perspective on our own lives, but more importantly, compassion and sensitivity to others going through pain. It adjusts our lens, in order to get our focus back into eternity, preparing us for the "I can't wait to get there!" thought and, quite frankly, the irresistible longings.


Isaiah 40:6-8

John 14:1-3

Belief in God = Peace...which is also the absence of a troubled heart. In this context, He is preparing a place and explicit in the preparation is this nugget: "If I'm preparing a place for you, I'm going to receive you to Me". If it were not so, He wouldn't have said so!


Our Eternal Home 600 x's in scripture

Habitation of God

Isaiah 57:15

1 Kings 8:30

Psalm 103:19

Daniel 4:37

2 Chronicles 7:14

2 Samuel 22:7




Perhaps the easiest thing to forget when we suffer, or see others suffer, is God is involved in the suffering. Regardless of the all-powerful, all-good tag God rightly deserves, we tend to forget what Jesus did for us in the ultimate injustice. Isaiah 63:9 & Acts 9:4 shows how directly and personal the suffering was for God. He has experienced evil, injustice, and physical pain, not to mention despair, heartbreak, and heartache (not from spicy foods, I reckon).


Philippians 1:21

When Paul wrote those words, he wasn't in a nursing home. He had experienced a multitude of things I never will. So, I can only imagine him and the countless others who have literally died for their belief in God, had a much sweeter taste of that verse and felt the full force of sacrificial living; how true those words rang in their spirit when facing the end of this life, fully aware they were just moments away from seeing Jesus.


I anticipate Heaven much more because I'm almost 50. In the good to great experiences in life, I'm thankful and, yes, acknowledge these are temporary. I still enjoy and bask in them.


I do get intermittently distracted by the good times, but I am not fooled by them.




When life is hard I want to learn to walk in grace and go through as refined by fire.


Revelation 4-5


The changes in life are significantly less frustrating than they were 15-20 years ago. Everything seemed to matter, and it made no difference the size and scope of the the issue. Today, there are fewer and fewer issues that trouble me, personally. It will always be different for parents when the sons and daughters are on their journey, no longer dependent on us.


Job 12:12

Proverbs 17:17

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14


Christ's work makes sense of life. His work gives life meaning, significance and satisfaction.


Finishing Well