Extremes

So, this is a picture of Brittany and I actually getting our tattoo's.  As you can tell my daughter is just a tad bit more dramatic than I am.  Which is one of the things I love the most about her.

But there is a much bigger lesson behind this picture than the difference in our personalities.

OK.  There may have been some pain involved, but we are both exaggerating to a certain extend just in different directions.  The real lesson came for me the next evening about 24 hours later.  We got them last Saturday, and Sunday evening I began to have a horrible back ache.  In fact my back hurt and I had spasms most of the week.  It is a week later and my back is just starting to feel normal.

I realized after looking at these two pictures why that probably is.  Even though it might be a little in excess. Brittany is releasing the pain she is feeling.  She is expressing it.  I know I look calm and relaxed right.  A rock?  In reality if you could zoom in on my knuckles I am pretty sure they are white from holding that table.  And I was afraid to move so I sat in that tense, odd position, probably holding my breathe most of the time.  It wasn't even for very long but I reaped the side effects all week.

It is that way with any kind of pain in our lives.  If we don't express the pain, if we hide it and act like it isn't there, it is going to come out somewhere.  If someone says something that hurts our feelings, betrays us, lies to us, breaks a confidence.  Those things hurt and we can bite our tongues, act like the pain isn't there, deny, ignore, act like we are tougher than we are, but the hurt is going to come out somewhere.  It may show up in your blood pressure, or your cholesterol, headaches, neck aches, back aches, TMJ, pinched nerves.  The pain is going to come out somewhere.

So, look at the lesson in this picture.  Brittany released her pain, it lasted the whole 8 minutes she was getting her tattoo.  Mine could have lasted only the 15 minutes it took to get mine.  Instead I was struggling a whole week with lower back pain because my pride said, "I am tough I can do this without showing any signs of weakness."  

God doesn't call us to be strong, to be tough, to hold it all in.  In fact, just the opposite.  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ my rest upon me.

When we give in and say I am hurting, and we turn that pain over to God, and we rely on him and not our own strength then He really begins to use us.  When it's His power in us and not our own then we really are strong.
Thanks for teaching me a lesson this week Brittany!