Persevering in Trials and Pain

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” Khalil Gibran

Another weekend of golf is in the books. Dustin Johnson won on the PGA tour with consistent play at a difficult course and a well playing host of other world ranked players. But the story I took from this weekend was from a player that I have known since elementary school, Bill Glasson. Bill lead the first two days of the “Champions tour” and finished tied for fourth. Bill was always known for his athletic skills before he began to play golf. Bill and I played football together as he was the QB and I was the running back. But, once he moved on to middle school he played basketball and played it very well. What held him from moving on in that sport was his health. He had knee problems at an early age so he took up golf. We all thought it was crazy, but we didn’t know that golf was a real sport. We were just kids so we didn’t know anything about it except that the football players didn’t play golf, “It was for sissy’s”!

My take on this weekend’s play from Bill was that he has not been able to play a full season healthy and pain free since the mid 80’s. He came on the scene and in the first few years he had turned professional, he had won seven tournaments and was on his way to elite status. But the injuries began to pile up. After 25 surgeries on his body, you might think he would have put the golf clubs down. But Bill is a grinder. He showed up this weekend after his last few seasons under the knife for a back surgery. In his interview he was asked if he was a 100%. He laughed and said, "Are you kidding? What's that? I'm better than I've been, but I still have to take that Percocet every day when I play, my Advil and everything else. I'm trying to cut back, but I'm just not there and I don't know what the answer is. It just continues to be lingering. "But let's face it, we're all hurt out here. Some not as much as others, but everybody's hurt. We just try to get through." (Read the whole article here, http://www.pgatour.com/2012/tournaments/s558/06/07/rd1-story/index.html)

I know something about Bill and you can see it if you have followed his career, Bill is driven to succeed. I think his athletic skill and instincts are secondary to his drive and will to compete. Even as kids, we saw him excel. We didn’t really understand it, but we watched it and we all talked about it, especially as he began winning tournaments at young ages.

We enjoy stories of the “Bills” out there! He never complains about his injuries and circumstances, he just seems to persevere. Bills story may be like yours or maybe a friend or co-worker that you know. Everyone goes through trials and tests. In John 16:33 Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble…” (NIV) Now that may sound negative to you, but one thing about Jesus, He never sugar coated anything and He never was afraid to walk with a person through a trial. One of the most asked questions by skeptics, atheists and even believers is this question, “why does God allow suffering?”  I heard a true story of a woman who had a daughter that suffers from an extremely rare disorder called “congenital insensitivity”.  If you are not sure what it is, it’s a disorder where a person feels no physical pain. Now, you may be thinking that could be a cool “Super human power” or something like that, but it is very bad, especially for a child. The person could be hurt badly and not even know it even to the point of causing their own death. So they have to be monitored. What I would like you to think about is this, the mother of the girl prayed for her daughter to feel pain. Does that seem like a strange prayer? What would you want in this situation? I don’t like hurting. I wish I had that disorder when my back went out. But if I would have had the disease I could have caused more damage to my back and a possibility to become paralyzed. I think you may now understand the physical need for pain. It protects us from further damage to our complex body’s.

I have learned over the years that pain is a time to learn and refocus and sometimes it’s a time for us to change. Like Bill, he has worked around and prepared himself for the pain that he suffers to play a game that has brought him financial success and has learned a lot of different life lessons through the pain along the way. Sometimes we have to move forward through a difficult trial to propel our future or someone else’s. There are millions of stories of people that have used very difficult situations to help them in areas they may have never been in unless there was pain involved. Human suffering is a teacher that can help us in just about every area of our lives. If you have pain and suffering in a difficult measure, find someone you can turn to for help. Suffering is a time for human interaction and forging character!

Discussion questions;                                                                                                     

1.    If you are suffering, where are you going for help?

2.    Is it building a foundation for positive change?

3.    Are you helping others through your suffering?

4.    Are you helping others who suffer?