This morning I dropped off my oldest son for a trip to Cordova for a basketball game. While he was loading on the bus I had the opportunity to talk to one of the coaches. I asked him about his son who had been having back problems. He told me that they had decided to completely quit trying to play this season. After they made that decision he and two friends who are also hurt sat together and cried.
It was quite a sad picture for me to grasp. A sophomore with a broken collarbone and a junior with a cracked vertebrate and a senior with a broken wrist all sitting together and weeping. The coach was telling me that is was very hard to watch as a parent and as a coach.
After he told me this story I drove over to my office. The whole trip I was thinking of that scene and was hit with this simple truth. So much of our lives are shaped by pain and adversity. In fact, we are probably more shaped by pain than by any other single human factor. It moves our lives in certain directions. It makes us look inside of ourselves and evaluate our souls. It forces us to do difficult things that often makes grow.
I hate pain just as much as anyone. I hate the idea of it coming on someone who I care about especially. But I know pain will come to me and to others. All I can do as ask, “God, what can I learn from this?” I realize though, that can be the most painful thing of all.