Spiritual Fitness & Living With Chronic Pain

If you measure your life based upon a “win-lose” scenario, most likely, it will seem like you’re always failing within the scheme of better living.

For example, years ago my wife and I were unintentionally rating our marriage against the idea of what it meant to be perfectly married. Within a short period of time, we found ourselves giving each other failing grades. Invariably we fell short of unspoken expectations about each other, flip-flopped through change, and never quite measured up to the unrealistic standards of hindsight evaluation. Basically, we were miserable, feeling more divided than ever.

Win-lose competition might work for the short term, specifically on the playing fields of athletics and scholarship. But this way of living drains optimism from your spiritual faith, thus disconnecting you from your body and soul as well as from the network of friends within your community.

Optimism is a “win-win” mindset. It’s when hope and healing and forgiveness faithfully fill in the cracks for the inevitable losses of life. Win-win pursuits allow you to try to continue to pursue your passions without giving up prematurely. It also allows you to find the love of God within people instead of seeing the worst things about human failure.

Why not live according to the “win-win” way of living?

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Who’s kidding who? Optimism comes from success. It does not happen from anything else. And when you’re circumstances seem hopeless, how do you practically muster optimism against overwhelming negativity?

Of course, temporary options are available and are commonly used when you’re unaware about what to do. You might consider making goals for yourself that are attainable so that success can be accomplished more easily. Or perhaps you might lessen your expectations about life. These are two typical ways to cope in order to hang on until the end.

But do these mindset changes actually birth true optimism? Emphatically no… Just because you can take the next step toward success by thinning your goals or giving up on your dreams does not equate to optimism at all. It simply means you have existed among the limitations of hardship.

Here’s where having a successful spiritual identity is vitally important. No matter the affliction, no matter what happens to your physical body, a rich spiritual life can pull you from the gutter; all the while, renewing your inner man daily. And during this regenerative process, optimism promises to manifest. It then progresses by nourishing your mind so that you will begin to see the eternal side of life, extracting the meaningless from the meaningful. And as you grow in this spiritual process, optimism will begin to shine brightly.

Indeed, optimism comes from success – something you can find in God Himself… This is the place where profound spiritual victory supersedes the ugly things seen in life. It’s where you begin to realize how puny your afflictions are when compared with the glory that awaits you. The kind of glory measured beyond your comprehension.

If you live until 80 years of age, how does this compare to eternal living? Think about it. It’s beyond optimistic. It’s beyond success. Imagine your life never, ever ending, living until you’ve exhausted all terms of life, and then, you’ll continue to live onward because tomorrow never ends again, and again and again. Eternal optimism awaits your participation… Why don’t you have courage to believe and to ask Him for this wonderful gift?

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Just because we can claim to have spiritual optimism does not mean that we do not undergo times of having pessimistic thoughts. 

The challenge set before us centers on how to properly deal with pessimistic thoughts, rather than feeling guilty when pessimism creeps into our lives, especially when we are weakened and more vulnerable.

This issue involves a mindset change.  It’s about having spiritual change that emulates throughout our entire being.

For instance, I’ve always had some sense of compassion and generosity for my fellow man, especially for the downtrodden.  But God’s grace taught my heart how to feel differently.  In other words, His grace impacted my mind, teaching me about truth and faith, and as a result, my heart began to feel from an eternal perspective. 

I began to see beyond my own abilities to compassionately feel for others.  Human compassion is something that is great.  But His grace is like having spiritual medicine, in which I can boldly testify that He has mended me into someone better, being able to overlook the negative things and to see beyond the pessimism about our human condition.  The same can certainly happen for you…

We will always have the challenge as to how we will handle ourselves against the battle of pessimism.  Spiritual optimism counteracts darkened perspectives because it is the reality of the hope found in Jesus, in which eternal victory conquers every circumstance of loss and doom that we face today.

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I’ve been told that I probably have more fortitude than others when dealing with chronic pain. The implied message behind this assumption suggests that perhaps I was born with more optimism than others. As if I innately have some form of genetic disposition for coping with the bad things of life better than those who find themselves struggling. I most certainly disagree with this assertion.

First, let’s take a gander at what optimism is. Sheila Sidney Bender, Ph.D., a psychologist and coauthor of The Energy of Belief: Psychology’s Power Tools to Focus Intention and Release Blocking Beliefs, defines optimism in this way, “No matter what comes an optimist’s way, he or she are empowered to make things go in a positive, healthy direction.” In a nutshell, Bender states, “Optimists think ‘I have options’ and ‘I am in control.’”

While Bender’s comments about optimism ring true, I do have some differing points of view. Personally, I believe optimists have an ability to assess the realism behind their circumstances, making good from bad no matter the odds against them.

And for myself, my spiritual optimism does that. It allows me to flourish during the darkened times because I’m able to see the light provided before me from God. My options are available because of how my mindset becomes renewed by God’s truth. As for the part about me having control, well, I might think I do sometimes, but this illusion quickly evades me.

Because one of the pivotal points about spiritual optimism is this…It’s about dying to my own sense of control as I place more faith into the realities of God. This proclamation about faith can certainly be difficult at times. However, this is when the importance of an optimistic attitude helps to fuel me regarding my walk of faith.

What does spiritual optimism really do? It opens the doors of the heart toward God and His ways of making good from bad; rather than trying to figure out the impossible or settling for the less desirable of two or poorer alternatives of coping.

Spiritual optimism is a form of praise to God for who He is. It’s also a viable means to heal and to put together the broken parts of our entire being. Spiritual optimism is given to us as a gift of grace. It’s a small part of the meaning of hope…

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Can you relate to what I’m about to convey regarding how memory sparks psychosomatic reactions from hurtful experiences? I mean this… I think explaining addictions might bring clarity to my point. For instance, former alcoholics can genuinely feel intoxicated when just getting a whiff of the smell of alcohol without actually taking a drink. The same thing can happen when memory triggers the horrendous realities of pain. We can temporarily feel our original pain when remembering a particular incident and how it adversely impacted our life.

Though we can have an automatic response to negative things, like pain and additions, I would like to share with you something about having spiritual reactions from times of faithful growth. When we know we’re off course from God, there are times when we might sense the Spirit of Christ working within us. Even without our knowing, the Holy Spirit creates a fingerprint of righteousness on our consciousness. Our minds are transformed into the mindset of Christ. In essence, God transforms our entire beings into our intended newness.

And as a result, we can be fully intoxicated by the Holy Spirit, especially when memories of the cross trigger the realities of redemptive grace in our lives.

To develop further spiritual sensitivities, I encourage you to soak in the word of God and simply remain consistent in your walk of faith.

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Seemingly, life presents us with many options about how to live. In fact, we’ll do almost anything to live according to what we perceive as happiness. But when seeking after happiness, what really happens? Invariably, many of us will stumble if our search does not include God. Essentially, we lose our way in life when we lose our spiritual path. Instead of seeking after happiness, why not seek after God?

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, NASB).

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I certainly understand the importance of feeling and grieving. But when it comes to emotionally linking to your problems, I discourage you from long-term attachment. Because when you emotionally bond with your problems there is the propensity to allow your problems to actually overcome your life. No one wants to be destroyed by the power of problematic outcomes.

Why not emotionally attach to your mental perceptions about God? I know it’s hard to imagine what you can’t really imagine. For when you try to grasp the infinitude of God, it is literally impossible to do this from your own human abilities. At best, Tozer writes, “All our thoughts about Him will be less than He, and our loftiest utterances will be trivialities in comparison with Him.”

But we can connect with Him through His Son and can be revived by the Spirit of Christ. This alternative to emotionally linking with our most tragic problems serves as an excellent way to live life to its fullest meaning. I encourage you to think about this and to conquer your worst fears about the adversity you’re trying to overcome…

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Yesterday happened to be one of those days… As Cherise and I are making some pivotal decisions regarding our business life, it felt like our plans were literally bombed into obliteration. Like a fox sneaking into the hen house, we never saw an unsuspecting variable against what we had thought as foundational to prudent decision-making. Nevertheless, is this really surprising to have gigantic trials when trying to move against the winds of change? Not really. On a regular basis many of us undergo major trials when trying to make critical decisions.

Curiously I’m intrigued about how we consider our ways of living versus how we might consider how to live according to the ways of God.

Think about this… Oftentimes we worship God on our terms only. In other words, we’re never really surprised by Him nor are we overwhelmed by His presence. Too often, we create the idea of God by what we can comprehend or by how secure we feel or by how we can control our circumstances evenhandedly. Rarely does anything actually surprise us when we predictably control our own outcomes of faith. In a sense, many are afraid to walk by real faith. And as a result, an altered sense of Christianity becomes created. Isn’t this religious idol worship? Each one of us can answer this question for ourselves.

I think that sudden attacks against our logical planning are ways for God to test our faith. It’s one method by which God examines our hearts under duress. Do we look toward His inner Spirit trustfully for guidance? Or do we skirt about trying to find solutions through the abilities of other men or by our own survival instincts? Sadly, commonly and frequently, I think we tend to drench ourselves into mere humanism.

Perhaps our physical perplexities are ways to open our eyes to the spiritual…

Relative to our current situation, we’re going to let the dust settle so to speak before we react too impulsively. Then we’re going to pursue the voice of God for His wisdom. Even if things do not go our way as we think they should, I’m sure we’ll learn to live by His ways through this process.

Although the unthinkable occurs for all of us, will you opt to consider this approach to deal with your own painful trials?

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Listen for a second…Do you hear the panic around you? Many people are furiously scrambling around, pondering about how to deal with some of the horrendous problems that life has thrown their way. Everything feels out-of-whack for our unsuspecting communities. Basically, it appears as if things don’t fit as neatly as they should within the scheme of life these days.

For instance, it seems like I hear many stories of people who are my age – around the 50-mark – who are essentially starting over with their lives. Retirement is simply a fading idea, another dream dashed against the financial realities in which we live.

Tragedy in nearly every form has literally destroyed the fabric of their existence, like where to live, what to do, how to deal with painful affliction and how to reconstruct when feeling out of place, just to mention the short list. Life was supposed to get easier, wasn’t it? Not so for many who are bewildered.

I encourage you not to panic like so many others. You’re not expected to solve your quagmire of problems with one-stop miraculous solutions. People do not live or die based on making only one decision to remedy several problems or to speed up the recovery process. Rather, a certain pattern of life is determined by a succession of decisions.

When trying to tackle gigantic problems, like the ones we face currently, the challenges aren’t necessarily to find the perfect solution or to get things back to the ways of yesterday; but rather, the mark set before us is to counteract fear and intimidation with an open mindset toward wisdom. One-time decisions aren’t really enough to solve the enormity of gunky problems left for our clean-up. On the other hand, the ways of wisdom promise to deliver us from our bad circumstances and also, to give us eventual redemption.

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When living in chronic pain, it is very easy to focus on the darker things of life instead of on the gift of living out each day with an attitude of abundance.

To glean the most, I propose the following: Maximize the “good.” Starve the “bad.”

To complain in the midst of any long, drawn-out trial is simply making “less” of who Christ is within us. It is during these times of spiritual blindness that we must decrease so that He can increase. He who is within us is greater that he who is in the world.

We must fully believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome periods of spiritual discouragement. Think of it this way. As we grow in faith, the Holy Spirit purifies our minds about the real image of God. In essence, this same Spirit can cure our periods of doubt and discouragement. It is vital to contemplate about the true nature of God. Regardless of our circumstances, the nature of God is entirely “good,” even when things do not go as planned.

To cure spiritual blindness is to begin to see things as Christ sees them.

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