Today's Devotional

January 16, 2003

Subject: We Feel The Pain

Romans 8:22 - "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."

I was getting up in the middle of the night for some reason about 5 or 6 years ago while stationed in Okinawa Japan.  Of course you know what happens in a story like this when someone is wandering around in the dark.  Yes, I stumped my toe on something in the hallway.   Man did it hurt.  I mean really hurt.  Eventually, I calmed down and went back to bed grasping my toe as I fell asleep.  The next morning as I got up, I had forgotten about the toe for the most part except that I was walking with a slight hitch because of it.  Soon, as I entered the hallway, I noticed a path of blood that led into the area that I had ventured during the middle of the night.  Then I retraced it back right into the bedroom.  Wow! That had been my toe's blood left all over the floor.   If I had known it was that bad I would've...   Well I guess it wasn't that bad.

The point:  Sometimes in life when we're in the dark, we can only feel the pain of the current situation or circumstance.  While we think it is really bad, when the light eventually dawns on a new day, then we will see that regardless of how bad it was, we were able to come through it and that God in His providence is always taking care and working His purpose.  

The stumped toe that night taught me many lessons and chief among them was that we don't always need to know why "it" hurts us so much, because we then tend to focus on our pain.   What we should be focusing on is God's purpose.   The Marines have a quote that says that "pain is a sign of weakness leaving the body."  Well pain is also a sign that God has made us as physical and emotional beings among other things.   We won't always escape the pain, but we've got the best Pain Reliever ever.   If you're in some pain right now, "take two knees and call Him in the morning"...night, afternoon, evening and right now.

Carlen