Pain.

My friend Gina is an incredibly gifted physical therapist. She's been working on my back for me. What she does is get into the muscles and tissue-unknotting and releasing toxins that have built up and cause tightness and pain. It hurts. A whole lot. This is no "massage". It is an incredibly deep pain. But even in the middle of the intense pain, I can feel muscles relaxing and knots being released. There was an incredible sense of freedom and healing that took place in the pain. And of course, afterwards, I was a bit sore but moving much more freely.  

God reminded me of something with this that I believe we don't like to face or consider as human beings, but that if we can learn to embrace, will drastically alter who we are and how we react to everything that comes into our path. This is going to sound crazy........

PAIN. IS. GOOD. 
Yep. I meant to say that. 
When looking at Scripture and life circumstances combined, one can see that while God never inflicts pain, He does allow it to remain. A lot of people-myself included-have a very difficult time with this. But if you consider it, you'll find that those who know the deepest joy, who are intimate with Jesus and move and breath with the spirit-are the ones who've experienced the deepest pain. Sometimes healing and freedom can't take place unless we go through a painful ripping and tearing and re-constructing. Yes, it hurts. But it always heals more beautifully than we can imagine it would. He knows what He's doing! Let the ultimate healer work!:)