Central Assembly
August 22, 2021 | Dr. Jim Bradford | 2 Corinthians: Gritty Spirituality - Why Waste Your Pain?
August 22, 2021 | Dr. Jim Bradford | 2 Corinthians: Gritty Spirituality - Why Waste Your Pain?
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Central Assembly
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Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:45 AM
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Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:45 AM
Gritty = courageously persistent; tough uncompromising realism [Merriam-Webster]
Three ways to turn your pain around:
1. Don’t let your pain lie to you
* God doesn’t care
1. Don’t let your pain lie to you
* God doesn’t care
1. Don’t let your pain lie to you (continued)
* God doesn’t care
* I’m all alone
* No one understands
* I deserve this
* I’ll never stop hurting
* There’s no hope
* God doesn’t care
* I’m all alone
* No one understands
* I deserve this
* I’ll never stop hurting
* There’s no hope
2. Let your pain shape you without defining you
TIMOTHY DALRYMPLE, The Olympics Are About Failure
“I’ve asked numerous Olympic athletes about their experiences. One thing they agree on was that it was never really about the Olympic Games themselves. It was about the people they became in striving for excellence. It was, in large measure, about what failure made them. Victory, when it came at all, was treacherous. It threatened to unmake what failure had made. Victory is more dangerous for the soul, defeat more instructive.
“In retrospect, I can see it. Failure—the failures I endured all along the way as well as the failure to make the Olympic team due to injury—has shaped me so profoundly that I hardly know who I would be apart from it. It showed me the end of myself. It taught me compassion. It showed me my many sins and flaws. It showed me my need for a strength beyond my own. It illuminated the grace of God.”
“I’ve asked numerous Olympic athletes about their experiences. One thing they agree on was that it was never really about the Olympic Games themselves. It was about the people they became in striving for excellence. It was, in large measure, about what failure made them. Victory, when it came at all, was treacherous. It threatened to unmake what failure had made. Victory is more dangerous for the soul, defeat more instructive.
“In retrospect, I can see it. Failure—the failures I endured all along the way as well as the failure to make the Olympic team due to injury—has shaped me so profoundly that I hardly know who I would be apart from it. It showed me the end of myself. It taught me compassion. It showed me my many sins and flaws. It showed me my need for a strength beyond my own. It illuminated the grace of God.”
2 Corinthians 1:9b
But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
3. Turn your personal pain into empathy for others
Stan Jones, former Wheaton College Provost
“God doesn't seem to be interested in getting off the hook. In fact, the answer of God in Jesus Christ to the problem of suffering is not to get off the hook at all, but rather to impale himself on the hook of human suffering with us in the very midst of our suffering.”
“God doesn't seem to be interested in getting off the hook. In fact, the answer of God in Jesus Christ to the problem of suffering is not to get off the hook at all, but rather to impale himself on the hook of human suffering with us in the very midst of our suffering.”