By Courtney Lindberg, Arborbrook Financial Wellness
We talk a lot about money around here. But, let’s talk about something often associated with money and, more times than many are aware, influences what we do with money; pain. I’m not a fan of suffering. I don’t enjoy pain. My wife is a personal trainer. She is my personal trainer. She knows more than any other mortal how much I dislike physical pain, nor deal with it very well sometimes. I can get a pretty bad attitude, become incredibly impatient and say things I don’t really mean. She’s also incredibly forgiving. Thank you God!
With new exercise routines, and honestly new routines in general, at about the six-week mark, I get to a place of acceptance. The pain doesn’t go away; it doesn’t decrease either. It’s much more likely the pain might increase a little. We, together, find my limits of breakdown, step back a bit and stay put. It’s bearable, but it burns. It hurts. It’s hard. A few weeks later though, that same weight is much more manageable and I have new limits. A friend of mine put it well when he said:
“In exercise, if you’re doing it right, it never gets easier. The degree of anguish remains stable, unchanging. It’s just that you can accomplish more from the pain.”
When I think back on some of the greatest figures in the Bible: Jesus, Paul, Abraham, Joseph, I think about the very real suffering they endured. The pain they endured was for a purpose. It was not meaningless. Yet, it might have been had they not persevered. The meaning was not discovered in the pain until what it was for was accomplished.
I’ve heard it said many times that God won’t give you more than you can handle. That is simply not true. God will absolutely give you more than you can handle. The point is that we would come to Him for strength, wisdom and understanding. That He would be our strength, our rescuer, our rock is the achievement.
It is a togetherness in strength, the one exercising (us) and the Personal Trainer (Him). He’s our spotter. I’ve also come to believe that sometimes He has us lifting very heavy weights to show us that we’re stronger than we think. He’s a good, good Father.
We have an entire year ahead of us and it is very likely that parts of it are going to be painful. But let us not focus on what we can accomplish in our strength and instead rely on His to guide us and provide for us. Let the pain and discomfort find its meaning at the finish line. We have much good to do.
Godspeed to all of you!
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