I just got back from an intense, early morning workout. My wife and I joined a "boot camp" for the month of December to shed some pounds and get the ball rolling on a better fitness routine for the new year. After the second day, I can tell you two things: 1) My body hurts, and 2), I feel great.
 
Pain and GreatnessPain and greatness often seem to go hand in hand. Here comes the spiritual parallel...

The thing of it is that's how it's supposed to be. I heard Don Miller speak recently in Nashville about his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and how he learned to tell a better story with his life. He said that a great story (and life) was marked by tension, by painful situations: "If you don't have conflict in your life, you can't inspire anyone," he said. 

That's true.

I shared that same point with a group of college students on Monday morning, quoting Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own: "It's supposed to be hard. The 'hard' is what makes it great."

Of course, he was talking about baseball, but the same is true in life. The same is true in our spirituality. I just read the following quote from A.W. Tozer (one of my favorite Christian authors) and can relate:

If God sets out to make you an unusual Christian He is not likely to be as gentle as He is usually pictured by the popular teachers. A sculptor does not use a manicure set to reduce the rude, unshapely marble to a thing of beauty. The saw, the hammer and the chisel are cruel tools, but without them the rough stone must remain forever formless and unbeautiful.

To do His supreme work of grace within you He will take from your heart everything you love most. Everything you trust in will go from you. Piles of ashes will lie where your most precious treasures used to be. (That Incredible Christian, pp. 122-124)

I once wrote a blog about wanting to be great. Little did I know exactly what that desire would cost me.

Photo courtesy of "Billue the Bear".