Pain and Growth:  How to Delight While Hurting

With all of the talk we do at Be A Tree around delighting in God's Word there can be a misunderstanding that we are somehow supposed to be emotionally up all of the time.  A quick stroll through a few Psalms should cure us of this expectation and burden that you are supposed to be emotionally up all of the time if you are loving God and delighting in his word.  Yes, there is a command to rejoice but this is not your health and wealth preacher with an unearthly sparkle in his smile saying "cheer up!"  God's Word does not narrow our emotional range but actually expands it.  The Psalmist goes to higher highs in his worship of God in some places than most people can relate to but he also goes to dark places and even finds space to vent and rage towards God.

I challenge anyone who reads this to find a book of the Bible that does not have pain, loss, suffering and disappointment as a key ingredient to not only human life but also to human growth.  The Psalm 1 tree is planted by the river bank but it is planted in dirt.  This is not hydroponics.  The root has to expand through the soil to the water.  When we are suffering and yet turn to God's Word we can find an answer.  The Bible does not get us back on our previous health and wealth tracks but onto new tracks toward God himself.  This is where delight and joy are possible even with tears coming down our cheeks.  

My exhortation is to move now with whatever disappointment is in your life and back to the Scriptures.  Either take the next step in the Peg Memory system or feel the freedom to jump to the Psalms and find a Psalm on the same octave as your heart (be that high or low), highlight the verse you want to meditate on and put it into your Bible Memory App.  Now make sure you touch this 4 times a day (right before checking that email maybe or opening that game) and let your root system do the rest.