Progress through Pain

On a much heavier note than my previous post, I have been chewing on this topic for quite some time now as you can see from my last post that was exactly a month ago to the date. I recently listened to a sermon by Marc Driscoll, formally of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, entitled Progress through Pain, that has really left me processing this idea in my life. I have always battled the thought of why everything in my life has been so gut wrenchingly difficult. Even as a teen and college student I processed ideas of why my path and my journey led me down dark corridors that left me scarred and broken. Every battle and every fight left me more and more disturbed and looking at those around me wondering why life didn't seem any more difficult for them as well. One of the greatest compliments I ever received was from someone who said that they were inspired by how I always battled and fought for my faith and struggled to be who I was and who I was becoming. That put me in tears because before then I hadn't really been able to put my finger on what exactly I had been feeling inside for so long and after that comment a light seemed to go off in my head. In Mark's message he spoke about Nehemiah rebuilding the temple and all the opposition he received in the progress. He went as far as describing in great detail how even people who typically oppose one another will join forces whenever we're doing something great that they do not agree with. This makes perfect sense that there is a very real opposition to the good work of the Gospel in our lives and explains my battle scars through out the years. I am left at the end of these streams of consciousness encouraged to think that surely scripture is true when God says He has begun a great work in me and is faithful to complete it! If these things are true, then I have indeed been set upon a path that is being guided and directed by my Savior! My only prayer is that the words of James rings true in my life and that I can in fact persevere through these pains to come out on the other side redeemed and perfected by the Perfecter of my faith!