Pains Purpose II

On Monday night I had a deep tissue massage. It had been quite a few years since I had this done. I had always remembered it to be a very relaxing, enjoyable experience. Monday's was anything but enjoyable. In fact, it was quite painful.

The therapist said the I am a massage therapist's dream because there is so much work to be done on me. She didn't even leave my shoulders and neck area for the hour-long session. It seems like there were about 50 marbles in that region of my body that she tried to work out, hence the pain.

On my drive home I did feel a bit more relaxed in my shoulders. Then yesterday morning brought with it more pain. It had felt like I had lost a back-alley fight. I am still sore even this morning.

In spite of this pain, I am going back again on Monday because I know I need to get this worked out to help me with some issues I am having in my arms. So, this is a time when I can truly be thankful for the pain, because I know it will lead to good.

In relation to life I suppose there are a few parallels:
1. If we have pain in our life, it will lead to good if we love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)
2. To get where we need to go, we oftentimes will need to fight through unpleasantness and persevere (Hebrews 10:36)
3. Like I posted about yesterday, our pain could be God preparing us to minister to others who will go through similar pain (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)