Welcome the Pain

There was a brief and wonderful period in my life when I was part of the Navy Run Team while I was attending the Defense Language Institute back in 2008 and 2009. Our goal was to train for a quarterly race which was held by the school, where all four branches of the military would field their best team of eight runners to race against each other in a winner-take-all two mile race. It was by far the best physical shape I’ve ever been in in my life. It all started because I was attending a bible study along with the team captain, and over the course of our getting to know each other, he continually pressured me to come out and practice with the team. I politely rebuffed his initial invitation, telling him simply, “I’ll never be in good enough shape to compete with you guys.” He laughed and said, “the only way to get faster is to run more, dude.”

My first few practices were something of a disaster. Not only could I not complete the seemingly-easy drills which they took for granted, but I would go home every night in agonizing pain, wondering how in the world I could ever have been so foolish as to think myself able to keep up with guys who were running six-minute miles. Nevertheless, I kept showing up. As I continued coming to practice each afternoon and slaying myself with sprint drills, the faster guys started to come alongside me with words of encouragement. Eventually, my times got gradually quicker. I went from 1:30 on my quarter mile laps to 1:25, then eventually down to 1:20, and so on. At my peak, I was running about a seven-minute mile.

My coach taught me many valuable lessons during that year or so. The best piece of advice I received, which I’ve carried with me ever since, was simply to “finish the workout.” What he taught me is that, above all else, you just have to force yourself across the finish line, no matter how long it takes you to stumble there. Your body has a natural aversion to pain and discomfort. As you’re sprinting around the curve of the track into the final straightaway, every muscle in your body is burning. Your lungs are desperately forcing your ribs ever-wider, which causes your chest and stomach cramps to get worse and worse. These things are all irrelevant. By forcing your body to continue forward, your limbs and lungs gradually begin to realize that their screaming isn’t going to benefit them, so they simply stop complaining and adapt to the new level of discomfort. The key, though, is to keep moving at all costs. Unless you overcome the pain and force your body to continue even when it desperately wants to quit, you’ll never improve. In runner's terms, we call this "breaking through the wall," which is your physical and psychological stopping point.

God’s word has similar things to say about pain. Not only are you supposed to not give up when you feel it, but God actually encourages us to welcome the pain, knowing that it will produce a better life for you when you come out on the other side of it. The apostle Paul had similar things to say in his letters, which incidentally you would do well to remember were written from inside a dank prison cell:

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"…we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."
-Romans 5:2-5

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
 -Galatians 6:9

“Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
-1 Corinthians 15:58

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness,which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."
-2 Timothy 4:7

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Finish the workout. That’s the goal. Your life will not always be an easy stroll through the woods; sometimes in order for God to get you where he wants you in life, he'll have you run a marathon to get there. Quitting early might seem like the easiest way, but in the end you’re robbing yourself of the progress which awaits you on the other side of the pain. For most of my life my pride has been a stumbling block, but occasionally it has proved invaluable. When it comes to choosing whether to walk away from a challenge in defeat or make another suicidal attempt, I’ll usually choose the latter, mostly out of a refusal to admit my own failure. Whatever your motivation, the fact is that God will oftentimes call you to things which are unpleasant, knowing that hardship and agony are the only way to force you to give up some of the bad habits or wrong ideas you've held onto for far too long.

God loves you just the way you are, but he also loves you too much to leave you the way you are. Don’t hide from your difficulty, welcome it. Self-improving pain is the best kind of pain in the world.

“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart. “

-Proverbs 17:3

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“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
-C. S. Lewis