Playing with pain

Dancers are athletes. I have had that reaffirmed in my mind this week. Perhaps more "in shape" then many athletes. This week a young dancer pulled a muscle. It was painful to say the least. After a doctor visit and a day off....she was back. She will play with pain today. It is part of what she does. It is not demanded of. She has an understudy. She will "play."

Pain is part of life. Unfortunately, we do not have understudies to take our place. When the pain is too great though, we do need to stop and rest and get help. No one needs to try to be a hero and hurt themselves. On the other hand, we all (especially as we age) experience aches and pains. We can look to scripture to see how Christ calls us to work through them. The pain of missing the mark, the pain of things turning out differently then you want, the pain of losing a loved one, the pain of self induced consequences for sin. Painful.

He is the Balm of Gilead. He is the one who can soothe your aching soul. He is the one who even has a tourniquet. He is the healer. Note I did not say that He cures. He may. He always heals.

The old saying, "Time heals all wounds" may be true, but I would add "but they may leave a scar"

The Lord has scars on His hands and feet and side from pain endured for you and me. He continues to heal us out of the pain he endured. So I encourage you to get help if you are hurting and know that we can survive playing with pain if we rest in the One who was.