No Pain... No Gain

"You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance." Psalm 65:11 (NLT)

         Those who are fitness addicts are very familiar with the phrase, "no pain. no gain" and rightfully so. It speaks to those who go from a static lifestyle to one of fitness. In the transition you experience a lot of pain caused by the lactic acid which is causing your muscles to stretcg. It's really an interesting concept of how God designed our bodies to consistently handle an increase in pressure physically.

           The same can be said for our emotional and spiritual fitness. I look back and think of all the draining moments of my life. Times of war, where despair was evident. Times of lack, thinking of how I was going to make it through some agonizing moments of my life. As I thought back on what I navigated in life, I think about the fact that though those things were afflicting me at that moment, I grew a tolerance to it. Perhaps at some other time in my life I wouldn't have been able to handle it, but at that moment I could and I did. My spiritual and emotional muscles were flexing and the pain caused by the "lactic acid" was an indicator that I can take on "more weight."

             I think of those who want the God of abundant provision without them having a need, or those who want God to be the healer without there being anything to heal. For God to move there has to be something He needs to move in or towards. For there to be a credit there must be a deficit.

             What if we really understood that he wants to make the hard pathways turn decidedly in our favor? Would we really get the fact that growth comes with pain, but in the midst of this pain there is overflow and abundance? I know it runs counter to anything that many people can reason, but that's the breeding ground for God's impossible nature. He desires to make something out of nothing...that's His expertise. He just asks us to trust along the way. To give up our tendency for self-preservation when things get tough and rely on those hard pathways to overflow with our abundance.

Pass the Test

Genesis 16:2-3 "And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; to may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listen to the voice of Sarai. So after Abram had lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife."

     This passage is known by many and often elicits strong feelings from lots of people, the truth of the matter is Abram and Sarai (their names had not been changed by God yet) were desperate for an heir (an answer to their problem). Sarai was looking for a resolution by adopting a common practice in their society in those days, giving the maid servant to the husband for children. In fact, this was a practice that Rachel (Abraham's granddaughter-in-law) practiced when she couldn't have children. Oftentimes these children would be the property or dedicated to the maid or slave owner and they would be treated as their own children (prehistoric adoption if you will). In Sarai's mind this is what would take place with the child of Hagar. 

      After reading this passage several times in the past, this particular time something stood out to me... the number 10, as in the years Abram had lived in Canaan when Sarai decided to take matters into her own hand. The number 10 is significant because it is the number of testing. It is God's number to use and see if what He has pronounced over your life has taken any effect. In Abram's case, this was the 10th year of living in the land of promise God had given him, but still Abram saw no fruit of the promise God had given to him 10 years before (sure he was wealthy but he wanted the promise of an heir). However, it wasn't Abram who acted on the impatience it was Sarai.

        What ensues may be misconstrued to have people think that the result was Sarai's punishment. I don't think so. I think that when Hagar gives birth to Ishmael, Sarai recognized that her methods were not the solution to the problem she had. I tweeted the other day that, "exceptional people have exceptional problems, but recognize that the exceptional solution is not them."I believe that part of Sarai and Abram's exceptional quality was recognizing their mistake and believing for a greater solution to their promise. (Side note: if your test comes and you're tempted to use the best methods of society at the time... don't... you'll save yourself angst in the future.)

          My purpose for all who may read this is not to condemn you for your mistakes in anyway. I hope that if you find yourself in the midst of the test, I would urge you to not respond the way you feel best. That is not an exceptional quality, recognizing that you can't solve it on your own...is.