Proverbs 20:30Blows and wounds scrub away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being.Proverbs Daily is a reader-supported publication. All posts are free, but all donations help spread the message. When you see the word "upgrade," you're simply invited to help me make the sacred positively contagious...thank you in advance for becoming a free or paid subscriber.You ever notice how pain and change are never far apart?Like two sides of the same coin—you almost can’t have one without the other. Every deep wound, every hard lesson, is just the setup for a new beginning. But every new beginning…well, it usually comes gift-wrapped in pain.Proverbs 20:30 says it so good: “Blows and wounds scrub away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being.”Yep. Facts. Some of us won’t move at all until pain makes things crystal clear. And pain has no problem telling us what we’d rather avoid—if we’re willing to listen.PAIN! Nobody likes it. But pain seems to be part of the growth-plan. C.S. Lewis put it like this: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”Buddhist teacher and psychologist Tara Brach said it another way,"Pain is a given; suffering is our story about the pain."See that’s saying that there’s a difference between pain and suffering. Pain is an involuntary physical or emotional sensation (like stubbing your toe). While suffering is our voluntary mental and emotional attachment to the event, the mental and emotional turmoil that follows. It's the anxiety, the anger, the self-pity, the replay in our heads about stubbing it again.When we accept pain as a teacher, those wounds aren’t torture—they’re training. They’re the threshold where old ways die out and new ways are born–again (And I think somebody once said that the whole being born into something again is pretty important…right?). So even a stubbed toe can become my teacher if it wakes me up to pay attention to where and how I’m walking. Pain did its job.That’s why I called this the precipice of pain. Because pain is proof that you’re standing on the edge of change…the edge of a miracle. The only question is: will you turn back in fear, or step forward into the new?So take care of yourself. Rest up. Eat well. Tend to your soul. Do what you must so you can endure—not just to the threshold or the precipice of the pain, but through it— into what God is making new.So Feel This:Pain isn’t punishment. It’s preparation for who you’re becoming.PrayerLord, use this pain to refine me, not define me.Today’s ChallengeDon’t numb it. Don’t run from it. Take one honest look at a current pain point in your life—physical, emotional, or spiritual. Instead of asking “Why me?” ask, “What is this teaching me?”About the AuthorFred Lynch is a creative communicator, author, and Christian Hip Hop pioneer. To learn more about Fred and what he’s up to now…click here or you can find him in all the socials by searching the handle: heyfredlynch📱Experience Proverbs Daily by Subscribing!Ready to receive daily wisdom directly on your phone?Go to proverbsdaily.org for the app or just click that Subscribe button right now!Be Wise and Be Well...peace.Thanks for reading Proverbs Daily! This post is public so feel free to share it.
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