Proverbs 14:23 “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”
I have always been one to exercise, but my exercising consisted of walking. My husband is always pushing me to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to exercise. His latest excursion had me sitting on a mountain bike at the bottom of a trail pointing up. I have figured out after being married for thirty-nine years, when we go up a mountain, we are also going to be coming down. Pedaling up was hard enough and I often found myself walking my bike up, which I think was almost as hard as pedaling up. Once I made it to the top, I soon realized the hardest part was going down. I white-knuckled my way slowly down the mountain and was relieved when I reached the bottom. I often know that after we attempt these excursions, the next day I am going to be sore in places I never knew existed. I am not one to suffer in silence so I make it quite clear to him I am not a happy camper. His favorite saying to me is, “It is better to hurt doing something than to hurt doing nothing.” I know when we exercise we are going to be sore and stiff, but I also know we are going to be worse off when we lack exercise. When we are sedentary, we are doing great harm to our physical and mental well-being. We can talk about the importance of exercise, but until we actually get up and move our bodies, we are not going to receive any of the benefits. In the grieving process, I believe the same is true, “It is better to hurt doing something than to hurt doing nothing.” We are going to hurt if we lay in bed and put the covers over our head, just as much as if we got up out of bed and went for a walk. We are going to hurt if we lay on the sofa and shut ourselves off to the outside world, just as much as if we reach out to others who are hurting also. We are going to hurt if we shut ourselves off from our Lord, and we are going to hurt if we fall into His arms and cry out to Him. I always remember telling my girls, “When you have a choice to make, make the best choice.” So the choice is ours because we will hurt doing nothing or we will hurt doing something. Grief, just like exercise, is hard work, but in order to reap the results, we need to get on that path and start pedaling up that mountain.
Lord, You are there walking with us, and sometimes carrying us, when we have no strength left.
