Pain = Friend?

Pain.  It appears daily in my knee, reminding me that I need therapy, that I now have limits.  While I do not enjoy the pain I feel, I do know that it can be a friend.  It can cause you to slow down and evaluate what you are doing.  It can make you reach down to the core of yourself and find the fighter that keeps plugging along.  It can make you grateful for those who love you...as you are.

There was a poem I kept on my nightstand when I started my first job.  Over moves and years, I somehow lost it, but traces of it linger in my memory and I find myself still saying parts of it today.

It went something like:   God, plant in me the necessary determination to bring Your gifts to life.  Do not let me hide them or cover them.  When friends laugh at what I have set forth on, let me not be deterred but plant me in the right direction.   And when the way seems dark, Lord, please plant a small signal fire at the end of the tunnel so that I may keep plodding steadily toward it.

For all who are in pain, I pray that God plants a signal fire for you today.  Plod steadily my friends.