7holycrap Life Lessons

Going Through Pain is not enough to bring Glory to God

I have had two people I know who were followers of Christ in the past few weeks go home to heaven.  I was considering their lives and the immense testimonies they each were to the people around them in the face of imminent death.  I was thinking about how everyone, at some point in their life, will go through pain.  It really isn’t a question of “if” as much as it is a question of “when” because we live in a world where things don’t seem fair at times.  When I went through my eye challenges a couple of years ago I thought that because I went through the “pains of life” that I brought glory to God just for going through them but I don’t think that is true now that I look back.  I can remember sitting at home when I was out of work and instead of asking God for strength and to use my situation for HIS good I was wondering what it would be like to go blind and considering all the life adjustments I was going to have to make. (I would actually take showers with my eyes closed to see if I could function without being able to see.  That’s how far I had come from faith in God taking care of me.  Not good)  I had a perfect opportunity to give God glory and instead I complained about the condition of my flesh.

Think about it; if everyone goes through hard times and you are just another person who made it through, how is that a reflection of God’s glory in your life?  Maybe you just got lucky and barely survived like everyone else.  The only thing that would set you apart is that your attitude lined up with God’s word and example of focusing on His greatness and not your life’s goofiness.  There were definitely times where I was giving the example of a selfish person who was only thinking of myself and how the pain I was dealing with was affecting me and not thinking of my wife, my parents, my sister and the other people around me who love me and didn’t want to see me sick. 

Appreciating pain leads to being thankful for pain. In other words; if I can appreciate, or value, what God is allowing to happen to me I may not be pleased about it but I can learn to be thankful for it.  The degree that I appreciate pain is the degree that God can use pain for my good and not for destruction.  The key comes from developing that trust relationship with God so that when pain comes I don’t see it as punishment but an opportunity to let Him shine through me and through the circumstances of life.  Pain in life where we don’t see the healing we are expecting are perfect situations for people to watch our lives and see how we deal with pain and be encouraged by it.

So here is the reason for the blog post today: if you are going through pain now in life congratulations! You have the perfect opportunity to give God glory that you could never give him if everything was going well.  If you are not going through something in life right now, you have the chance to develop your relationship and trust in Christ to a point that when your day of testing comes you will have a chance to lead others to Christ by a Godly attitude in middle of your storm.  This stuff is never easy, but that’s why, as a man of God, I want to learn how to deal with pain so that even in the bad times I can give God glory in my life.

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The amazing blessing to our family…Wilson

Today Yolanda and I had to put our little dog Wilson to sleep.  He was 16 years old and had been getting sick the past few days so we took him in this am to be put to sleep.  It was a sober reminder to me about the impact that Wilson has had on our lives.  Whenever you have a death of any kind in a family, you begin to talk and think about the life that was once a part of the family.  I know some would say, “he was just a dog” but Yolanda and I have never been without him as a couple.  She Got Wilson as a puppy when we were first dating and we have had him ever since.  We were talking about all the times that Wilson could have died from just doing stooopid things like getting out of the car on a trip from Florida to Springfield Missouri and running the WRONG WAY up the highway towards a birm in the road.  Or when he saw a cat at our house in Wyoming late one night and forgot he was on a leash and took a tumble on his head down eight concrete steps.  The best and most endearing memory I will have of him is when I was REALLY sick with my eye situation.  I remember one time when I was so sick that I didn’t want Yolanda or anyone else around including my dog.  Wilson knew something was wrong and kept trying to get closer to me on the couch.  I finally pushed him away with my foot, but he kept on creaping up to me.  I love my wife and she knows this with everything we have been through the past five years, but I can say without a doubt, that I probably would have killed myself if it wasn’t for Wilson.  I just had no reason to get out of bed some days and sometimes Wilson was the only reason I had to get up and get going with my day.  The mornings were always the hardest for me when I was sick, but Wilson was always right there with me.  There was a stretch of 11 months when I was out of work where I was with Wilson all day sometimes.  We definitely spent some good times together and now that he is gone I have a new respect for what he meant to me in this life.  I want to encourage you today with the death of my little dog Wilson.  My God loved me so much that he gave Yolanda and I a little Yorkie when we were first married but could see down the path of my life that I was going to need Wilson at my greatest point of need.  He gave me Wilson when he knew I was going to come to a place of giving up on life and needing to have a reason to go on.  The God I serve is so conerned about me that he would give our family that little dog to get my mind off of my eye rotting out of my head and on Wilson.  God knew I was going to have struggles with believing He was there but knew that Wilson could be that bridge for me to figure out it was God all along giving me what I needed exactly when I needed it.  Yolanda and I will miss Wilson, but that little dog served his purpose in this life and I am determined to do the same.  I will live my life for the cause of Christ and for the people around me that need to see that Jesus can take care of EVERYTHING they are going through.  This little blog post may seem a little dramatic, but you need to have stepped in my shoes the past five years to understand what Wilson and my God have meant to me.  It was Wilson’s love of me that kept me going and I know that it is the love I have for people that will help them in their time of need.  Hopefully, I will be that bridge for people to get from seeing a person loving them and lifting them up to a God that wants to know them and have a real relationship with them.  If you want to know more about Jesus and giving him more important role in your life, then send me and email and I will be in touch!  pbrian7@yahoo.com