Running from the Pain

After several lessons about a wonderful book, Pancakes for Supper, the first grade teachers and I decided to have a culminating event by making pancakes with the first grade classes. This required strategic planning of materials, staff and more importantly the group of children that each of us would be supervising. Let's just say that some of our first grade students do not have much impulse control!  After setting up the tables with pancake mix, water, measuring cups, wooden spoons, spatulas and electric griddles we were ready to discuss the activity with the students.

With as stern of a voice that I could muster I repeated this phrase several times. "Do not touch the griddle, it is hot and you will get burned." Convinced that we were ready to begin the pancakes making began.

We stirred the batter and talked about the hot griddle several more times. Before I could even pour the batter on to the griddle one of my most impulsive students reached out and touched the griddle with his finger. When I asked him why he would do that he said that he just wanted to see if it really was hot!  For the remainder of the class he had his one blistered finger in a glass of cold water. When he had to take his finger out of the water, because it was time to go home he began to cry, "It hurts, I don't want to take it out!"

This little boy reminded me of how we run from pain. After we have done what we know is not good for us or what God has told us not to do we experience pain. We will try anything to avoid the pain of our consequences. The problem with running is that we can never out run God!

My good friend Wayne Anderson used to say, "The hound of heaven will catch up to you!"

Today I went for a bike ride. Usually this time of year I begin my exercise routine of longer and longer rides. The first ones are excruciating because my body is not in shape. It's not too difficult to talk me out of riding at first because I know that it can be painful. Sometimes I run from the pain of training.

The disciples knee-deep in the midst of spiritual training with Jesus had many times when they probably wanted to run from the pain of learning the same lessons over and over again. They were with Jesus in the town of Bethsaida along with the crowd of people on the mountainside. Imagine the pain that they felt when Jesus turned to them and said, "You give them something to eat!" (Luke 9:13) or when they had to collect all of the leftover baskets of food!

Some people are like the Samaritan woman who ran from the pain of being alone. As Jesus unfolds her story in John 4 we learn that she has been running from one relationship to another.

Perhaps it's just human nature to run from consequences! I think that this may have been the reason behind this verse.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9

Jesus knows how and why we run from the consequences and calls us to just fess up so He can clean us up!

Just like the father who ran to meet His prodigal son, God runs to embrace you as you come close to Him. He will stand with you in the midst of whatever consequences that you have to endure whispering, " I am with you always".

Isn't it time to stop running?

It has been a long night

I awoke to my husband leaning over the bed, staring at me. He was in pain, no words were necessary, his forlorn face told it all. That and the fact that he was holding onto his stomach. “What’s wrong?”, I managed to mumble.

Immediately I went onto the WebMd to look up his symptoms and try and discover what might be wrong. At first it was a horrible diagnosis, but then I found my way to Gall stones. Everything fit his description of the pain. For the next 7 hours, I listened to him toss and turn, get out of bed and back in, painful sounds of discomfort that I could do nothing about.

We could have went to the ER but I thought that we could just see our doctor in the morning. Easy for me to say, I wasn’t the one in pain. In the morning I called the doctor only to find out that the soonest we could be seen was 4 in the afternoon. There was no way that my husband could have lasted that long. We decided to go to emergency.

It’s so funny how your mind plays tricks on you. Immediately I began to think of terrible things that could be wrong with him. Each time, a thought came into my head I stopped and Praised Jesus for reminding me of himself.  That He was bigger, stronger than any disease, and diagnosis. I was at peace.

My husband was so much better too after they put him on a morphine drip! It’s amazing how calm he looked in morphine land!

After an ultrasound and a ct scan it was determined that he has gall stones. We praised God for this simple diagnosis.

Here is my take away from this long night.

God is good! He was good before, He was good in the midst and He is good after.

Pain, Pain Go Away!

Sitting in the middle of a conference, all of a sudden something did not feel right. My back was killing me. It was as if someone was sticking a knife into my lower back and twisting it. The pain was unbelievable!


I layed down on the floor in the back of the room thinking that maybe it would get better.  It didn't! Then I  realized that I needed to drive home. 


I hobbled to the car and tried to sit down. "Ow, ow, ow, ow". I kept whimpering. The thirty minutes it took to get home were extremely painful! I had to pull over at one point because I was crying so much.  Who knew that your back could cause you so much pain? Please make the pain go away!


Once I got home, I crawled up the stairs and layed in the bed. I was praying that I would just pass out so I wouldn't feel any more pain. When my husband got home and discovered his pitiful wife in pain he suggested that we go to urgent care. All I could do is nod.


Because sitting caused more pain, I layed down in the back seat of the car. Upon arriving at urgent care the pain had significantly increased and the only way I could cope with it was to once again lay down. Without hesitation and no embarrassment on my part, I layed down on the waiting room floor! The hardest part was rolling on to my side to stand up when they called my name. 


After a battery of exams and x-rays they gave me a shot!  Oh blessed Demerol!  The shot was heavenly! Soon I was able to manage the pain enough to go to sleep!  The recovery from whatever happened to my back took 6 months to go away completely and years to regain the numbness that I felt in my left leg. 

We all have things that cause us pain.  Sometimes the pain is extreme like my back and other times the pain is ongoing and manageable. In the midst of my back pain, all I could think about was making it go away.

Pain has a way of confusing us. It gets us to focus only on the pain. 

The pain deceives us into thinking that;

No one understands

Things will never get better

God has abandoned us

It is important in the middle of the pain to remember what is true!

1. God understands 

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. I John 4:9-10

"He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.) Luke 22:44 

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me,so far from my cries of anguish? ² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Psalm 22:1-2

2.Things will get better

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Jeremiah 29:11

3. God is Always with us


For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39



Father, We do not always understand why there is so much pain in the world. Help us to trust in you and trust in the truth of your word. I believe that you understand my pain. I believe that there is hope for things to get better and that you are always with me. In the midst of our pain we ask you to make yourself and your presence known to us.  

I Followed the Wrong Leader!

My mother had one of those big wringer washing machines when I was little. We lived in an old beautiful farmhouse that was filled with all kinds of secret play areas and interesting hideaways. The washing machine stood proudly in the kitchen and when it was laundry day it became the prominent appliance that required focused attention from my mother.  She would use the hose to fill it with water, add the sorted clothes and then pour in the detergent. With a turn of the switch the agitator would begin to do its work and then after rinsing she would do the most magical thing. The wet clothes would go slowly through the wringer. Each time I was in the room while my mother was wringing out the clothes, she would turn to me and say, "Don't ever put your fingers in the wringer!"

Funny how we forget the protective words from someone who doesn't want to see us get hurt.

My older brother, he must have been 6 years old at the time, said he had a surprise for me and that I should follow him. I loved my big brother and was so excited to see what he wanted to show me on this day! Following him into the kitchen I stared in confusion as he pointed to the wringer washing machine. "this will be so much fun", he excitedly shouted at me. I heard my mother's words echoing in my mind.


First he showed me how the machine worked, I think he wanted me to trust him.  


Next he took a wet towel and put it through the wringer. "Look at all of the water that came out of it!" I began to get excited as I stepped closer to see the water.


After that, my brother, the one that I thought I could trust, encouraged me to,"put your fingers here, it won't hurt!" 


Finally, as my fingers began to go through the wringer, I realized that my mother had told me not to put my fingers in the wringer, BECAUSE IT WOULD HURT!!!!!


I made some serious errors this day;

I watched him demonstrate the machine

I stepped closer to the machine

I listened and followed his directions

I got hurt

All of this happened because I followed the wrong leader!

Are you following the right leader?

Jesus is the good shepherd! He gently leads us to restful places. 

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, 

John 10:11

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

 He makes me lie down in green pastures,

 he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.

 He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

 I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

 You anoint my head with oil;my cup overflows.

 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

 and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

 Psalm 23

Thank you Father. Your sheep, Jann