Spiritual Fitness & Living With Chronic Pain

When you’re at the place where pain, whether physical or emotional, stops you dead in your tracks, I encourage you to resist giving up and to continue onward no matter the circumstances.

From my experience with living with chronic pain, I’ve discovered some very tough lessons through intense times of bodily suffering, fatigue and deep depression.

One loss on top of another can definitely complicate your ability to see the light of day; all the while, dimming any hope of living a productive lifestyle ever again.

I know what I’m about to say sounds crazy, but please listen because it’s very important. This crossroads where you’re positioned is the place to begin rebuilding your life.

And when your condition is chronic, meaning this unhealthy cycle repeats itself over and over again, year after year, this is when you have an opportunity to do something constructive, instead of being disheartened to the point of giving up.

I encourage you to voluntarily resign to the reality of nothingness about your circumstances. Please do not misunderstand what I’m trying to say. I’m absolutely not suggesting that you become fixated on lowly thoughts or that you adopt abnormal living habits.

On the contrary, I’m referring to something much deeper spiritually and something very real for your recovery.

While your flesh (body, mind, emotions and will) might want the trials of painful adversity to be completely eliminated immediately, God might actually be using this form of suffering as a way of developing your true spiritual wholeness.

What I mean is this. Your pain might be the cross you must bear so you’ll learn how to obediently resign to nothingness. In other words, this might be the best way for you to actually “die to self” or “to become more aware of eternal realties.”

When resigning to nothingness, this is exactly when your faith will direct you into the rest of God. And from this construct this is where the life of Christ will begin to fully manifest through you.

By resigning to nothingness, you’re becoming less. By giving yourself to God, He’s becoming more in you. You’ll find that your trust will practically grow in knowing God through suffering.

For the most part, the pain will no longer remain the centerpiece of despair in your life. Rather, it will simply signal you to give yourself, including all of your anxieties, quickly unto God.

Think of your dark times as opportunities of spiritual growth. I know some of these thoughts are deeply profound. Yet, the spiritual things do become real when we set our minds to believe in them.

In essence, the more you decrease, the more He will increase in you, giving you the true meaning of freedom and healing.

Your dark clouds will eventually fade away because your newfound confidence of faith will enlighten your entire being about the realness of the eternal things to come.

Just some helpful thoughts about living with chronic pain and spiritual fitness…

The importance of spiritual fitness and how it relates to your life deals directly with your relationship with God. It has nothing to do with your efforts to feel justified by good works.

Essentially, your whole purpose of life is to be near God, and likewise, to have God near you. This is when restoration of the body and redemption of the human soul has any chance of taking place.

The disciplinary side of spiritual fitness can actually hurt. Because many philosophical thoughts and worldviews influence our religious expressions, it’s common to find that many people are actually pretending to be near  God, when in reality, they are not.

This is the essence of spiritual fitness. It’s a process that brings you closer to God, meanwhile, setting you apart from being confirmed by worldly ways of living. It’s moving from past to present, so you can experience the fulfilling promises about a new future.

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Re-constructing from old to new!

Spiritual Fitness is not the exercise of any spiritually-related practice. Furthermore, it’s not an attempt to make you the primary focus of better health and self-awareness. Sure you will glean the fruits of having a healthier lifestyle through a dedicated diet of spiritual fitness.

But the goal is not about what you can do to try to flex your spiritual muscles toward improved living. On the contrary, it’s the exact opposite. It’s about how much you’re willing to be stretched by faith into someone “new” through your beliefs in God.

Do you feel the buzz in the air? People are willing to put aside the old, ugly, dirty and heavy junk from the lifestyles of 2009 for something radically new.

Yet, to really begin to live from a new mindset, it takes full understanding what death means to the core of your being. And for many people, it seems as if this past year typified some of the characteristics of death through loss, conflict, pain and brokenness.

You’re not really afraid of pain and fragmentation because you’ve already been living like this for quite some time. And as a result, you no longer fear the worst because you’ve been accustomed to the regular “ups & downs” of living with chronic pain – both physically and emotionally.

Spiritual fitness awaits your participation. This simply means that you are meant to be “set apart” from the encumbrances of this worldly life.

To walk the road of spiritual fitness isn’t easy. It takes incredible faith, a willingness to be guided by the Spirit of God, and courageous surrender and immense discipline to keep on enduring no matter what. The rewards are unbelievably fulfilling, both on your inner core, as well as seen on your outer being.

Stay with me this year as I’ll continue to blog about living with chronic pain and how to reach your potential of a fulfilled life. It’s literally closer to reality than you might actually realize.

Some of the worst doctrinal mistakes I observe within modern Christianity deal directly with the topic of suffering. It’s as if the believer of faith is not supposed to ever suffer any hardships if they’re really living their lives for God.

It’s the human way of combating fear, focusing on self-preservation by living successfully in this world and then trying to keep the other foot on the righteous path for God. This way of living is like trying to mix vinegar with water.

Simply put, this type of lifestyle negates the true workings of trials, which refine the quality of who we are and help us to discover our true purpose for living. Straightforwardly, the righteous of faith are not exempt from suffering, particularly when it seems completely horrendous and absolutely unfair.

Regarding suffering, many people react to it fearfully, not so much frightened about the actual mode of what causes their pain or discomfort, but more so about how much loss might occur as a result of their affliction. As we build up our lives, it’s even more painful to see the walls of our identity completely shattered. We’re left empty, feeling last among those we try to impress with our accomplishments, as well as being spiritually bankrupt when exposed without any perceived support and comfort.

In essence, that’s what painful trials do. Trials are instruments for spiritual fitness. Walls of idolatry and self-preservation are torn down for an exposure of the human soul to encounter the one and true God.

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Chronic pain is endemic within our Western culture today. Regardless of religious, social, economic or cultural background, chronic pain continues its assault upon hoards of people within our population. Deterioration seems to be the theme, and not just based upon physical and/or emotional afflictions. Our society has noticed a gigantic shift downwards regarding material and economic fortune.

It’s like watching the interaction between pain and material downfall. When our society suffers financially, more people are riddled with all kinds of medical and psychological disorders. And as a result, our nation can expect a sharp rise in health care costs. Likewise, when our society experiences tragedy that causes inordinate pain, our economic climate also bears the direct impact with increased medical expenses. Pain and money seem to prey upon each other within the feeding frenzy of life.

As a nation, we’ve forgotten how to prepare for emergencies. And with many cases today, I don’t think we’re collectively prepared to really help others through the maze of catastrophe. Terms like self-mastery, conditioning and discipline require the character traits of long-suffering and self-control. However, our society has fixed their interests upon the short-term solution, the need-to-know-now fixation and the path of least resistance. Of course, the latter roads focus on self-interests, more power and more money, forsaking things like the truth about the spiritual walk.

In order to recover from windfall, I recommend that we consider the starting point of wholehearted repentance. Spiritual renewal begins with repentance. And repentance ultimately brings a renewed fruitfulness to the land, whether referring to the constructs of painful suffering and/or material resources. Getting our hearts re-directed towards God allows us to begin the most solid foundation of reconstruction for better living.

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When you’ve reached the end because of pain, it becomes much clearer regarding what actually matters as opposed to what’s not really important. And as far as relationships are concerned, pain tends to damage the foundation of what holds people together. Through the years, I’ve clung to a few proverbs about life. And stated simplistically, don’t let the little things turn into big things, and also, don’t let the big things become little things. In other words, avoid letting the insignificant things supersede the important cornerstones of your relationships. This helps to put pain and its adverse effects into healthier perspectives.

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As much as you think you have control, consider this… the truth of the matter is that you are limited by what you’ve been designed and created for. You were born with certain genetics – imprints of actually what your gifts and talents are.

Your DNA coding or biological composition predisposes you on your journey of life – a path of discovery about yourself and the nature of God and how you two interconnect.

The idea of control simply puffs up the human ego about pride and dominance. Control separates you from discovering God. It reaffirms human power, fragmenting your spiritual identity and distracting you from your eternal purpose.

The tragedy of life is not whether you accomplished all that you wanted. Rather, it deals with whether or not you wasted your talents and potential for self-discovery, and more importantly, for connecting with the love of God. From these reference points, life springs eternal. True life is birthed from your starting point of faith regardless of your talents. It’s when you give up control, you really discover the One who controls everything…

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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?

Keep me on your favorites. Click for updates about living with chronic pain and spiritual fitness at www.gordonselley.com.