I work on cars, injury is apart of my job. Pushing through pain is part of my life, I don't know why, but at almost twenty two I spend most of my time in pain. My hands, back, wrists, ankles, neck, hips, and shoulders. I'm sensitive to light, and have regular headaches. They aren't major or debilitating, but they are frustrating. I'm not writing this to complain, because it leads into this.
I've had most of these since I was a teenager, and I would complain a lot. Adults, my dad, mostly men, would always tell me "you're too young to be hurting." or "don't complain to old people about pain." I think older people forget that kids, teenagers, and young adults hurt too. Any kid in sports, my self being one of those, can tell you about pain. Any kid that grew up on a farm, any young girl taking horse riding lessons, and any martial arts kid can tell you about pain. Now, this isn't an old person bash, I think kids need to understand something too. That the worst pains we've felt, can not compare to the pain of age. The physical and mental weight of years. This is a hard world, full of hard people who have endured.
I learned eventually to suck up, and keep going. I tucked all my pain away and keep going. But, like I said, it's more frustrating that debilitating.
Now, my dad understands pain. Burns over a good portion of his body from a brush fire, scars from his accident on a motorcycle, scarred and calloused hands from 15+ years of hard labor under hoods of all types of vehicles. Scarred and calloused hands from a lifetime of hard labor. I remember days... watching my dad get ready for work. hearing the painful grunt as he stood, watching him limp to the truck because his arthritics was hurting him, watching his hands curl up until he could work the stiffness out of them. And on his day off... he was out in the yard, or cleaning the endless bottomless storage room, and making trips to the dump.
As real life kicks me in the gut, hard long hours at work, painful cuts in bad places on the hands that I need to use to work, stiff joints that scream for relief... I think of this
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
(Genesis 3:19 ESV)
Anything that makes you sweat, you will remember, and if you will remember then you can learn from it. I'm not going to go out of this life with a painless perfect body. Hopefully my years will be long, hard, and blessed. But if they are long, hard, and cursed as the ground is upon which I tread, still I will work, and hopefully I will work hard. Hard work yields respect, teaches humility, sets an example, and gets the job done. Laziness yields contempt, inflates pride, also sets an example, and gets nothing done.
God may have cursed the earth, but he blessed Adam with the ability to work. Adam would remember that first green plant, the birth of the first lamb, the cries of his sons... why? Because it was hard, and there were scars, easy things pass from memory, the hard remain forever.
Work hard my brothers, humble yourselves before God and man, set the example!
