When Getting Better Hurts
Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.
A few years ago, I was warming up for a soccer game when a teammate, standing about five yards away, unleashed a powerful shot. Unfortunately, my thumb got in the way.
It stung, but not enough to stop me from playing. By the time I got home, however, my thumb had doubled in size. Ice, Advil, and a little online research convinced me to give it time.
I was happy to follow that advice.
But after two weeks of increasing pain and impressive shades of black and blue, I finally went for an X-ray. There were no broken bones, but there was significant ligament damage. The doctor gave me a splint and clear instructions: “Stay as faithful as humanly possible to the splint. Take it off only to bathe.”
I expected immediate relief. Instead, the discomfort increased, waking me during the night. The splint was supporting my thumb in the position it needed to heal, but that position felt uncomfortable.
Something could be helping me even when it hurt.
That thought stayed with me. Sometimes, when God brings our lives into alignment with His holiness, the first thing we notice is the discomfort.
Confession troubles our pride. Forgiveness challenges our resentment. Surrender unsettles the habits we have come to depend upon. We ask God to change us, then discover how deeply we are attached to what needs changing.
Love That Corrects
“The Lord disciplines the one he loves,” Hebrews 12:6 tells us.
God loves us enough to address what is harming us. He sees beyond the excuses we make and the patterns we have learned to manage. His correction may expose something uncomfortable, but His purpose is restoration.
The splint restricted my movement so that healing could take place. God’s commands also give us boundaries within which life can flourish.
Hebrews says He disciplines us “for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness” (12:10). His concern reaches deeper than our immediate comfort. He is forming our character.
God loves us as we are, and His love is committed to who we can become.
Holiness That Changes Us
“Be holy, because I am holy,” God says in 1 Peter 1:16.
Holiness means belonging to God so fully that His character increasingly shapes ours. It reaches into how we speak, what we desire, how we treat people, and who we are when nobody is watching.
Through Jesus, we are welcomed by grace. We do not make ourselves holy to earn God’s love. We pursue holiness because we have received it.
But grace does not leave everything untouched. As we follow Jesus, He teaches us to release what diminishes our love for Him and our love for others.
That may involve an honest apology, a difficult boundary, or surrendering something we have quietly defended. These steps can hurt because they reach beneath our behavior into our loyalties.
We begin to ask: Do I want God to make me comfortable, or am I willing to let Him make me holy?
Healing That Requires Surrender
For two weeks, I worked around my injured thumb. I adjusted to the problem rather than addressing it. We can do the same with our souls.
We accommodate bitterness. We excuse compromise. We describe an unhealthy pattern as “just the way I am.” Familiar brokenness can begin to feel normal.
Repentance interrupts that arrangement. It means agreeing with God about what is wrong and turning toward the life He offers. Sorrow comes from acknowledging what needs to change, but hope comes too: we are no longer pretending nothing can be done.
Not every painful experience is God’s correction. But when His Word clearly calls us toward holiness, discomfort is not a reason to resist Him.
Where might God be inviting you to align more closely with His character? Is there something to confess, something to release, or someone to forgive?
The next faithful step may be uncomfortable. Take it with the confidence that the One calling you is also the One helping you.
Sometimes getting better hurts. But there is deep hope in knowing that God’s loving work in us has a purpose—and that we can trust Him with the process.
A few years ago, I was warming up for a soccer game when a teammate, standing about five yards away, unleashed a powerful shot. Unfortunately, my thumb got in the way.
It stung, but not enough to stop me from playing. By the time I got home, however, my thumb had doubled in size. Ice, Advil, and a little online research convinced me to give it time.
I was happy to follow that advice.
But after two weeks of increasing pain and impressive shades of black and blue, I finally went for an X-ray. There were no broken bones, but there was significant ligament damage. The doctor gave me a splint and clear instructions: “Stay as faithful as humanly possible to the splint. Take it off only to bathe.”
I expected immediate relief. Instead, the discomfort increased, waking me during the night. The splint was supporting my thumb in the position it needed to heal, but that position felt uncomfortable.
Something could be helping me even when it hurt.
That thought stayed with me. Sometimes, when God brings our lives into alignment with His holiness, the first thing we notice is the discomfort.
Confession troubles our pride. Forgiveness challenges our resentment. Surrender unsettles the habits we have come to depend upon. We ask God to change us, then discover how deeply we are attached to what needs changing.
Love That Corrects
“The Lord disciplines the one he loves,” Hebrews 12:6 tells us.
God loves us enough to address what is harming us. He sees beyond the excuses we make and the patterns we have learned to manage. His correction may expose something uncomfortable, but His purpose is restoration.
The splint restricted my movement so that healing could take place. God’s commands also give us boundaries within which life can flourish.
Hebrews says He disciplines us “for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness” (12:10). His concern reaches deeper than our immediate comfort. He is forming our character.
God loves us as we are, and His love is committed to who we can become.
Holiness That Changes Us
“Be holy, because I am holy,” God says in 1 Peter 1:16.
Holiness means belonging to God so fully that His character increasingly shapes ours. It reaches into how we speak, what we desire, how we treat people, and who we are when nobody is watching.
Through Jesus, we are welcomed by grace. We do not make ourselves holy to earn God’s love. We pursue holiness because we have received it.
But grace does not leave everything untouched. As we follow Jesus, He teaches us to release what diminishes our love for Him and our love for others.
That may involve an honest apology, a difficult boundary, or surrendering something we have quietly defended. These steps can hurt because they reach beneath our behavior into our loyalties.
We begin to ask: Do I want God to make me comfortable, or am I willing to let Him make me holy?
Healing That Requires Surrender
For two weeks, I worked around my injured thumb. I adjusted to the problem rather than addressing it. We can do the same with our souls.
We accommodate bitterness. We excuse compromise. We describe an unhealthy pattern as “just the way I am.” Familiar brokenness can begin to feel normal.
Repentance interrupts that arrangement. It means agreeing with God about what is wrong and turning toward the life He offers. Sorrow comes from acknowledging what needs to change, but hope comes too: we are no longer pretending nothing can be done.
Not every painful experience is God’s correction. But when His Word clearly calls us toward holiness, discomfort is not a reason to resist Him.
Where might God be inviting you to align more closely with His character? Is there something to confess, something to release, or someone to forgive?
The next faithful step may be uncomfortable. Take it with the confidence that the One calling you is also the One helping you.
Sometimes getting better hurts. But there is deep hope in knowing that God’s loving work in us has a purpose—and that we can trust Him with the process.
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