That HURTS!!

So today I just wanted to share something that I shared with our team at Breakthrough last fall concerning growth.

Growth isn't easy, in fact it is down right painful - I remember as a child many a night, during those times I would experience a growth spurt, that my dad would massage my legs and knees and place a pillow under them at night to alleviate some of the pain as my body underwent change. IT HURT - no doubt about it. Yet with each of those seasons came the encouraging thought that once I had endured the pain I would be taller as a result. Sometimes it was slight at no more than 1/2 inch or so and in other times it was visibly noticeable as much as 2 or 3 inches! BUT, I had to go through the process of pain in order to be taller and bigger.

The same still holds true today - no I am not going to grow to 6' 7" and start playing pro ball, but I do have to face the process of pain. Sometimes people say things that in the moment make me mad at THEM... even though I know they are right. Sometimes God reveals something to me which I thought I was over, or had at least hidden well, and I get upset... even though I know He's right. It is painful, it is not easy to hear much less embrace, but it does not change the fact that in ministry in life and as a person I MUST, and YOU MUST, learn to embrace accountability and confrontation (PAIN) in order to grow!!

The only difference between my physical growth as a child and my development as a leader and a person is that in the first growth was inevitable, in the second growth is optional! You can chose to face challenge and accountability and rebel crying out about the "unfairness" of it all... OR you can grow up and respond with a mindset of seeking to stand taller when it is all said and done. I don't know about you but I want to stand taller - to mature. How about you? How will you respond?

~PN