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“If it were pain-free, we would act.”

A thought by Kyle Idleman (2014-03-01) from his book, AHA: The God Moment ThatChanges Everything (p. 171). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Kyle goes on to say, “Most of us don’t want to act, because we don’t want the pain. So we put it off.”

And that was true of me.  I hadn’t gone to the Doctor for over 6 years.  I was feeling pretty good but I knew there were a couple of areas I needed looked at.  I was feeling ok so I didn’t go.  A few months back I was listening to a sermon by Rick Warren and he said that taking care of himself physically was a personal thing until he got to thinking about how important he was to his family and how they would feel if something happened to him.  And that hit me where it needed to hit me.  So I had my wife make an appointment for me to go to see the Doctor as a 69th birthday present for my family. 

Now the spots on my head were skin cancer.  And I get the biopsy report on whether I have prostate cancer tomorrow.  The Doctor is pretty sure I don’t but he just wanted to make sure.  Now the stage two skin cancer surgery was an ordeal but it was a success.  The skin cancer has been taken care of.  But I had to go to the Doctor to have it taken care of.

Kyle says, “We put off the workouts, because we don’t want sore muscles. We put off living within our means, because we don’t want to cut back on our lifestyle. We put off the hard conversation, because we don’t want awkward tension. We put off getting help, because we don’t want to feel vulnerable. We put off asking for forgiveness, because we don’t want to embarrass ourselves.”

He then says, “The Prodigal Son knew how hard making the trip back home was going to be. He knew how painful it would be to see the disappointment in his father’s eyes. He knew how humbling it would be to feel the judgment and condemnation from his older brother. He knew it would be painful, shaming, and difficult. Waiting wasn’t going to make it any easier. In fact, the longer he put off action, the more difficult it would become. So he got up.”


So what are you putting off doing because of the pain?

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