Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
James 1:2-3
One of my favorite units to visit in the hospital as a chaplain is the Rehabilitation Unit. The patients in this unit are often very determined to get better, so they endure a lot of difficult and often painful physical therapy in order to recover from an injury, surgery, or condition. There’s almost always pain involved, but the patients embrace the pain because they know the pain is a necessary part of their growth and healing.
Have you experienced “growing pains” lately? Sometimes they come unexpectedly, sometimes we choose to endure them, and other times they’re sort of forced upon us.
The one thing I know is that if we always avoid growing pains, we will never experience growth and healing.
