Shred Your Pain

I've been going through some old files in my office today, trying to determine what to keep, throw away, or hand off to Tal. 

When I got to the "C's" I found a counseling file which contains my confidential notes from various crises I've dealt with in the past eight years.  These include sensitive conflicts, some of which required multiple meetings and church discipline.  Some of them even had me convinced at the time that the church was going to be irreparably damaged.

I realized something encouraging as I looked through my notes.  I experienced a lot of stress while walking through each situation, but until today I didn't even remember these things happened.  Once I saw the notes I could recall some of the details, but it had been months, and in some cases years, since any of this stuff had even crossed my mind--which reminds me of one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. 

It came to pass. 

That thing you're going through right now that feels like it's going to crush you.  That thing you just want to try and ignore because it feels so overwhelming.  You know, that thing you're just convinced is going to be the death of your dream.  Yeah.  That thing.

It won't be too long and you won't even remember it!

Looking back, I can identify the real benefit of these experiences.  God increased my emotional endurance.  Very slowly, and very painfully, He's been building my capacity to lead through difficulty and resolve conflict.  And I'm grateful for it.

Now I get to do something that I'm going to really enjoy.  This file that I'm talking about--I'm about to shred it!

Are you in the midst of some epic difficulty today?  If so, don't give up.  Persevere.  Endure.  It won't be long before your pain is a distant memory on its way to the shredder.

Comments

[Ernie Fox]

Hope you didn't feed your tie into the shredder. It's not so much the loss of a tie, it's the whole strangulation issue that crops up.

Old files, painful memmories, emotional baggage, PODS and MAXIMUS STORAGE locations....All need to be purged at some point; all take some effort to clean 'em out; and one Great Savior is there to take our heavy burdens while we take on His light one. (Although with the PODS and storage units you still gotta do most of the work).

Merry Christmas!
Ernie Fox

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1137783976]

thank you!

[Dustin Taylor]

Very Encouraging!

What a great attribute we picked up from God, the ability to Forget.

Thanks for all your blog posts.

Dustin Taylor

[Rich Jones]

Great word, Brad. So true!