The Essential Pain

So I had a thought last night, something that made me stop and think. But before I give it to you, let me first tell you a story.You know when, sometimes, your arm falls asleep? Or perhaps your leg? Somehow you're laying on it wrong, or otherwise cutting off the blood flow. And what happens? The arm loses feeling. It feels weird, right? Like it's dead. And it doesn't function like it should - perhaps not at all.But once you start moving the arm, or the leg, and the blood starts flowing again, something starts to happen. You get feeling back - gradually - but it doesn't feel so great. It can be, and often is, quite painful when the arm starts waking back up. But without that pain, without the blood starting to flow again, the arm (or leg) would eventually die completely.And so it is with us.Maybe, deep inside, we've fallen asleep. Maybe we've been so still for so long that we don't even know we're lifeless inside. We can't even tell how lifeless we've become until we try to start moving again.That's when the pain starts.And a hard decision has to be made. In life, it's not as easy as pushing through the momentary pain to wake up your arm so it can move again, so it can function like it's supposed to. In life, sometimes we're scared, sometimes we worry, sometimes we're just not sure the pain is worth it.But can I tell you something?Pain is essential to get the blood flowing again.Maybe you've been coasting, letting life pass you by, not really living. Maybe you've felt that pain - the pain of CHANGE - and jumped back from it. But God doesn't want us to live like that. He wants us - expects us - to use what He's given us and THRIVE.We all have an important mission to carry out, something that God put us - and only us - on this earth to do. If we're lifeless and aren't functioning like we should - like we were designed to do - we miss out. We miss out on all God has for us, all the good He wants to do through us, all the blessings we receive when we're doing exactly what He intended us to do.Change is hard, yes. Scary, new, different, so very hard...but good. And essential.We just have to get the blood flowing again.