PAIN AND CHOICE by Lolita Jardeleza

How I love that saying, "Pain is inevitable but misery is optional." I definitely am one of those people who do not like to suffer more than I have to. I fully believe that trying to live life without suffering is like trying to take a shower without getting wet. But you will not catch me volunteering for more suffering than is already built-in in life. What suffering life sends me I will join to the sufferings of Jesus on the cross, hopefully, with a gracious spirit but I do not believe in horsehairshirts and self-flagellation. I think our enjoyment of God's blessings also please God when we do it for His glory (1 Cor. 10:31)

That is why I have latched on to humor as a pain-reliever as are prayer and looking at things philosophically. I try to see if another angle might diminish suffering. For example, "Why do I think this new arthritic pain in my knuckle is painful? If I thought it was pleasurable, would I still think of it as pain?" So while I'm experimenting with those attitudes, Iam distracted long enough to not feel the pain for the duration of the distraction.

I have also reflected on what causes us the most pain. I thought that maybe if I identified all the things that could bend me out of shape, I would somehow learn how to deflect them the way the Shaolin monks deflected spears in "Kung Fu."

Surely for me, the loss of Papa. To be separated by eternity from the person who held life's meaning for me took everything I had to make sense of living. Loneliness is hideous. There is simply no way we can get around the soul-shredding grief that comes from losing someone we love dearly in death.

There is a pain in missing those we hold dear from whom we are separated by distance. Happily, e-mail allows us to stay bonded in mind and heart from day to day. The love and relationship can keep thriving because the investment of time and caring remains unabated.

Ongoing silence from the ones we love is the subtlest and the most painful rejection of all. But one learns to live with it. We do not have to accept the punishment others deal us because it gives them a sense of power.

Silence is a spear I can deflect.

Loss of friendship is painful. Without explanation, without rhyme nor reason, someone you thought and valued as a friend is no longer there. Thankfully, I have never lost a friendship though because I have never put my end of the friendship down. "He drew a circle that shut me out Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout / But Love and I had the wit to win / We drew a circle that took him in." (Edwin Markham)

Physical pain and loss of health are major crosses. Yet we take good health for granted and merrily abuse our bodies as if we were invincible. So we take care of our health as assiduously as we care for our possessions because health is a primary asset.

Loss of material things we value is nothing to sniff at either. It is an ongoing struggle not to be attached to the things we own. So we meet and get acquainted with St. Francis' Lady Poverty.

Failure doesn't faze me because failure is my familiar as well as my teacher. Churchill said, "Success is never final. Failure is never fatal.

It is courage that counts." I claim I have never failed because I'm stillin here trying.

Criticism, disapproval, insult, anger - all hurt. And so we turn to "Do good to those who hurt you. Bless those who curse you." And constantly I remind myself that WE LOVE GOD AS MUCH AS THE PERSON WE LOVE THE LEAST.

Feeling that we don't measure up, that we fall short, that we are inadequate nags even the strongest of us. So God says, "My grace is sufficient for thee" and I can say, "When I am weak, then I am strong," for God's power is made perfect in my weakness.

Spear, deflect. Arrow, deflect. Bullet, deflect. We have that choice - we are not at the mercy of life. We are bigger than life.

LONELINESS by Christopher Notes

"Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone." This comment by theologian Paul Tillich points out how much our feelings color our experience.

To be lonely is to feel isolated - cut off from others and locked into ourselves. It is to feel loss and sadness and self-pity.

But to experience solitude is to be alone with something, such as a book or music - or with God, in meditation or prayer. It is to feel peace and well-being.

To turn loneliness into solitude, we need to concentrate on something outside ourselves. That's why prayer can free us from isolation. It connects us with the beautiful and the universal, with God.

O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet You are enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our ancestors . . . trusted, and You delivered them. (Psalm 22:2-4)

When the "lonelies" come, God my companion, console me.

CLOSED DOORS Author Unknown

We need to learn to praise the Lord as much for a closed door as we do an open door. The reason God closes doors is because He has not prepared anything over there for us. If he didn't close the wrong door, we would never find the right door.

God directs our path through the closing and opening of doors. Once a door closes, it forces you to change your course. Another door closes, it forces you to change your course again. Then, finally, you find the open door and you walk right into your blessing.

The Lord directs our paths through the opening and closing of doors, but instead of praising him for the closed door (which keeps us out of trouble); we get upset because we "judge by the appearances. "

You have an ever-present help in the time of trouble that is always standing guard. Because He walks ahead of you, He can spot trouble down the road and set up a roadblock or detour accordingly. But through our lack of wisdom, we try to tear down the roadblocks or push aside the detour sign. Then the minute we get into trouble, we start crying, "Lord, how could You have done this to me?"

We have got to realize that the closed door can be a blessing. Didn't He say that no good thing would He withhold from them that love Him?

If you get terminated from your job, praise God for the new opportunities that will manifest themselves: it might be another job, it might be school.

If that man or woman won't return your call, it might not be them, it might be the Lord setting up a roadblock (just let it go).

One time, a person had a bank they had been in business with for many years tell them "No!" to a $10,000 loan. The Lord put in their spirit to call another bank. That bank gave them $40,000 at a lower interest rate than the first bank was offering.

We can sometimes trap ourselves in doubt and discouragement through judging by appearances. Be grateful for the many times our Father has closed doors to us just to open them in the most unexpected places.

The Lord won't always say in spoken words: "Go to the left, now to the right" ... sometimes He will just close the doors that are wrong for you.

God Bless You Always!

DRIPPY & DRIZZLY By Sally I. Kennedy

Sounds like the two dwarfs who didn't make the cut for the Disney movie. Drippy and drizzly. That is how it's been for the past 2 days. When you are on vacation, that's the last thing you want: rain. But you know what they say, "can't do much about the weather".

I watched the clouds drip onto the water, making hypnotic little circles that merged into other circles. How the years melted, and I was transported to a place far away.

At a remote spot, at the end of a long dirt road, was the clearing with a pretty spring-fed lake and a sprinkling of cottages; one of which my parents honeymooned in, then later purchased.

I spent summers there as a child. Rustic hardly describes it. Today, I believe camping would be more sophisticated than life at our cottage was back then.

It was the best time of my life. Well, one of the very best, for sure.

Life was so simple. We enjoyed reading stories and books; we put together lots of puzzles. Outdoors there were limitless opportunities for creative play and on sunny afternoons, we could swim.

Every summer we would borrow a farm dog, and he'd be our friend for the months we were there. He, my sister, and I had many an adventure in the old rowboat, scouting bullfrogs on lily pads.

Today I am thankful for time to be still, like those days. To just "be", and not "do". I am too often guilty of operating as a "human doing" and not a "human being".

God can really use our drippy, drizzly days, to quiet our minds, minister to our souls, and settle our spirits.

That is good news.

Psalm 46:10 (NIV) Be still, and know that I am God Psalm 55: 6-8 (MSG) Get me out of here on dove wings; I want some peace and quiet. I want a walk in the country. I want a cabin in the woods. I'm desperate for a change from rage and stormy weather. Psalm 4:4 (ASV) Stand in awe, and sin not: Commune with your own heart upon your bed,
and be still. Ps 131:2 (NKJV) Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul.

APPRENTICE By Marion Smith

The day we put our house on the market for sale, a real estate agent came by to view it. With her was a young girl- her apprentice, she said. They walked all around the house, and the seasoned agent showed specific attributes and features to her apprentice. She was training and molding this apprentice in the finer points of her profession.

In certain skilled crafts, an apprentice spend his time with the master before going out on his own. The same is true with the teaching profession but the apprentice time is called student teaching. Many times a mentor will take a yearling under his wing, helping and guiding him along the way in his chosen profession. The medical
profession, too, have apprentice times called internship and residency.

In the realm of spirituality, each person has an opportunity to be an apprentice. We can stand under the awesome guiding hand of Jesus, allowing Him to teach us how to live. He exemplified God's love through actions and words, telling us about the way God wants us to live and love.

Just reading about Jesus and His teachings will not equip us for the abundant life, however. We must first personally ask Him to abide in our hearts, and accept Him as Lord and Savior. Then... we are open for all He has to teach us. We will be life long apprentices to Jesus, ever learning and growing. On the day we leave this earth, we will come into full perfection, to abide with Him for eternity.

Being an apprentice to Jesus is a wonderful position to have. If you have never done so, ask Him to be your teacher today. Invite Him into your heart, and start to learn about and live the abundant life.