“Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. So, remove sorrow from your heart and keep pain away from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.” Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 NASB
Everyone will experience hurt in their lifetime. Most hurts will heal. Some will not. All hurts though will leave an imprint in our life. In some ways we are the sum total of our hurts.
These hurts come from an endless source of darts thrown in our direction. Most often from an unlimited pile of human ignorance. Some hurts are the reflection of expectations gone wrong. Others are the damage left by people deliberately or unintentionally provoking you.
Whatever the source, the result is the same. It hurts.
We may bring hurt upon ourselves by a sinful act. We may think we are doing good when the end result is harm to another.
We hurt when the grade needed from a class falls short and we lose out on a scholarship for college.
We hurt when the person we have a crush on tells us they are not interested.
We hurt when the bills are more than the money in the checking account.
We hurt from the outcome of an auto accident.
We hurt when someone close to us suffers from a tragedy.
We hurt when we wake up the next day with a hangover from yesterday’s party.
We hurt when our close friend reveals a hidden secret to others.
We hurt when our spouse tells us they do not love us any longer and wants to go their separate way.
We hurt when rejected from the job we enjoy.
We hurt when our love ones die.
We hurt when our bodies no longer quickly recover from the workout that day realizing age is catching up to us.
The issue is not the hurt. But how we respond to it. The hurt may last a lifetime. Or only a few minutes. But the fuller we grieve; the faster we forgive others and ourselves; the healthier we become with another learned lesson toward maturity in Christ.
God wants us to dream dreams and pursue them. He wants us to chase the desires of our heart. But HE also wants us to do so within the boundaries of HIS character. Being hurt is the price of becoming more like Christ.
An athlete chooses temporary pain to grow their muscles. They push themselves until it hurts. Then they back away. They want to be the best they can be. So, hurt is part of their process.
As Christ-followers, we likewise learn to integrate faith into every area of our life. That includes our dreams and desires. We thus pursue our goals partnering with Jesus. We ask HIM to be involved in our daily walk. We offer our dreams to HIM. We ask and seek out HIS ways in the process. But we are careful our dreams are always secondary to our relationship with HIM.
Yes, in the Christian journey many darts of hurt will come our way. The pain will be real. It will hurt. But as we lean on Jesus, HE will walk with us in the pain. HE will help heal the hurt or carry us through the pain. We will learn from the situation. We will mature in the process. We will learn to trust HIM more. And always, you can be assured, HE will continue to root for you, and help you, even while it hurts.
Rooting For You in Christ!
Dr. Mike
Faith-Integrator, Encourager, Scribbler
“We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,” (Colossians 1:9)
Aspirations and Writings Neatly Bound in Book Formats:
* indicates audio version only available at Apple Books
- Power Up With Jesus Book Series- Aspirations for a Grace-Paced Life *
- The Adventurous Journey of Transformation in Christ *
- Overflowing Prayers Rooted in Jesus Christ v1 & v2
- Dancing With God: A Life-Giving Worldview *
- Great Business Emulates a Good God
- Stay Free…Avoid Worldly Traps
- Simply The Messenger
- Unequally Married
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Radical In Christ 