No pain; no gain.

This past weekend, I was thrown off a jet ski going about 50 MPH.  It felt like I skidded across concrete and I have a bruise on my bum to prove it.  Seriously, if I could post a picture on here I would -- but one, I think I'd get in trouble and two, you might vomit.  Moving right along...I attempted to go running yesterday for the first time since I'd injured myself.  You might also want to know that my big left toe is cut and therefore I'm not putting too much pressure on it.

Y'all, the toe was one thing, but the bum.  I literally had to hold it at times while running.  I'm sure I looked like quite the runner.  Haha!

But as I was running and thinking about how ridiculous I must look, how my body was hurting, I thought, "no pain; no gain."  And then I thought how that transcends beyond physical pain, and into emotional/psychological pain as well.  We all have baggage.  We all have things we are wrestling with currently.  And we could sweep them under the metaphorical rug and ignore them in order to be more comfortable.  Or, we can deal with the things that are hard.  When we wrestle with the hard things, I think we end up being much better off -- the pain produces the gain of knowing ourselves better, what makes us tick, what easily enslaves us, etc.  And, for those that know Jesus, you get to know Him so much better because He is walking beside you through the pain.

Then I thought of Jesus on the cross.  Sure, that crown of thorns had to hurt.  The whips and the nails driven through his body had to be excruciating.  The people yelling at him must have been awful.  But, of all that, the worst pain he felt was being separated from His Father, God the Father, for three days.  That hurt like hell...literally.

And for what?  He bore all of our sins that we might live, and more than that, live full lives in freedom.  He took on the pain that we might receive all the gain.