The Pain of Progress

I'll never forget this devotion that we had one day on choir tour my freshman year. Our chaplin read from one of C.S. Lewis' books in his Chronicles of Narnia series (not sure which one it was). In the excerpt, a dragon, who used to be a boy, was going through the painful process of shedding his scales and becoming a boy again. I can't say that I remember every detail and I've never actually read the book myself, but that image has stuck with me for quite a while. The dragon was hurt each time a scale came off, but he had to go through the pain in order to become what God had intended him to be.

We spend an awful lot of time in our lives trying to avoid pain. We stretch before we work out so that we don't end up in pain afterwards. We avoid working out so that we won't be in pain afterwards (more along the lines of what I do!) Right now I have a headache and will most likely be taking medicine to avoid this pain all night. Some of us even stay away from members of the opposite sex in order to avoid painful rejection or the possibility of a messy, painful break-up. Sometimes the things we avoid are things that would be good for us to do, yet we know it's going to take work and maybe even give us pain, but how else are we going to change into what God has intended us to be?

This pain can not only be sometime personal, but communal. How often do we avoid things with one another because it may be painful to bring them up? I'm thinking of the church as a vine right now....one that is connected to God. When I say church, I mean the body of believers - all people who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and in his death and resurrection as the means to our forgiveness. We are all connected to each other through God. Some of us are good and bear fruit. Some of us do not bear fruit. These are the ones that need to be pruned back so that the rest of the vine can continue to grow in a healthy way. My eldest son was watching Curious George not to long ago and in the episode, George was on a farm and he came across a man cutting branches of a tree. George, being the innocent little monkey that he is, thought the man was hurting the tree. He protested by taking the man's hat and running away with it. Of course, before the episode was over, George learned that the man wasn't hurting the tree but taking care of it. We so often wish that keeping things healthy didn't mean getting hurt or losing part of ourselves and so we can continue to let sinful things keep occurring in order to avoid pain.

I can't say that I'm always the part of the vine that is bearing fruit. Sometimes, I'm the one who is so complacent, that I'm holding the vine back. I think we just need to be ready to feel a little bit of pain, if that is going to be how we choose to act. We even need to be ready to feel a little bit of pain if we are doing and acting as God wants, because in those times, the pain we feel will be a test of our commitment and resolve and will leave us stronger than before. It's sad when we have to lose part of our community because someone isn't bearing fruit, or even worse, is infecting other parts of the vine, but we will be stronger because of it.

I know that there are plenty of times when I've been struggling with something - you know, the kind of struggle that simply happens on the inside - and I've thought, this is going to end up being a big part of my story. (which, by the way, may be my next blog). Sometimes you just know that the thing you're dealing with will be a part of you forever and you know you'll look back on that hard time and be glad that you went through it. Don't be surprised if something difficult comes your way tomorrow. Welcome it. It could very well mean that you're growing.

P.S. If this doesn't make sense, just remember that I have a great headache right now...and it's late.