Ouch! That Kinda Hurts!!!

"My dear child, don‘t shrug off God‘s discipline, but don‘t be crushed by it either. It‘s the child He Loves that He disciplines; the child He embraces, he also corrects. God‘s educating you; that‘s why you must never drop out. He‘s treating you as dear children. This trouble you‘re in isn‘t punishment; it‘s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God‘s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God‘s holy best. At the time, discipline isn‘t much fun. It always feels like it‘s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely [it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness--NASB], for it‘s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God" (Hebrews 12:5-11, The Message).

Ouch! Correction hurts sometimes, doesn‘t it? (Probably most of the time, actually.) Sometimes it‘s a little more painful, other times a little less, but it generally does "feel like it‘s going against the grain," as the The Message puts it.

It‘s SUPER important that we remember God‘s motivation for correction: His incredible and never-ending LOVE for us. Just as I correct my 4-year old son because I love Him so much that I refuse to allow him to develop patterns in his life that will be unhelpful or dangerous to him, it is according to the same desire that God corrects us. It‘s also essential that we keep in mind the goal of the correction: God‘s invaluable Kingdom training. Only, this isn‘t training for the purpose of creating a super athlete whose primary drive in life is to be better than the rest. Rather, it‘s all about "training" to become the people that God made us to be; it‘s all about God helping us get everything out of life He intends for us to enjoy, and become a blessing to people around us.

The Bible tells us that every person is born with a tendency towards foolishness. This isn‘t an accusation or judgment against us, and it‘s not meant to shame us or make us feel bad. God isn‘t interested in calling us (bad) names; after all, His preferred name for us is "child," and He feels so much affection for us. God‘s observation about foolishness is just that: an observation. God wants us to see that this is the way things are in life and that He has a remedy for it: His instruction and discipline.

The athlete analogy actually is quite helpful. Do you play a sport? What sport do you play? Soccer? Baseball? Basketball? Are you, or have you been, on a team? Are you now better at that sport than you were when you first started? If you are, why? I‘m gonna guess that it‘s because you‘ve allowed yourself to be corrected and made corresponding adjustments to the way you were doing things before. There are effective ways to hold a bat, kick a ball, shoot a basket--and there are ineffective ways. When you choose a way that doesn‘t produce the results you‘re looking for (like making a basket, for example), it doesn‘t mean you‘re a bad person--it just means you need some correction and adjustment so that you can be successful in accomplishing what you set out to accomplish. God‘s interest is for us to have success in life; by success, I don‘t mean make lots of money or have a nice car. God‘s plan is for life to work very well for us and the people we influence. That‘s a great tradeoff for the correction. And it‘s so important to remember that the discomfort or pain from that correction only lasts for a little while but the benefit that comes from it can last a lifetime.

I still vividly remember spraining the big toe on my left foot the last day of VBS (2006!). I kicked the concrete stage really hard. (Not on purpose, of course!) Not only was my big toe purple for a while, so was the part of my foot it is attached to. A number of weeks later it was still pretty stiff and sore. The doctor told me that in addition to icing it, I should also try to move it. She gave me an exercise to do: put a towel on the floor and scrunch it repeatedly with my left foot. This involved a couple of things: the use/motion of my hurt toe...AND not a little discomfort! You see, after I sprained it, my toe became quite swollen and stiff, and wouldn‘t flex quite the way it was designed to. (The pain associated with the stiffness went on for months; I think I may have actually broken that toe!) So, in order to regain that range of motion and experience life the way God intended for it =), my big toe had to endure some painful correction. Yeah, it definitely continued hurt (though not as bad as in the beginning) but the pain did eventually go away after a while. Now the pain is altogether gone--a thing of the past--but the benefits of that correction (the physical therapy) could last for as long as my foot and I are around!

What are the things God is adjusting--correcting--in you right now? Don‘t fall for the devil‘s lies that tell you the discipline is a statement of God‘s displeasure with or annoyance at you. Don‘t let the enemy tell you it means you‘re a bad person who God's ashamed of or that you should feel ashamed of yourself. DO remember that God is only interested in helping you be the best you can be: the person He carefully and lovingly designed and knows you can be. When we allow Him to adjust the things that aren't really us, we'll be a lot more pleased with the end results...and much better able to function as He intends.