Pain is good...or so I've been told...

Many many many times in my life I have been told "No pain, no gain" or "pain is good"...
While I know these facts are true, when you are IN pain, its not quite so easy to stomach.
This last weekend I re-dedicated myself to getting in shape. I actually love to work out, but when I get out of the habit, I tend to forget how much I love it. Or I just can't seem to find the time to fit it in.

Back in January I made a resolution to lose 20 pounds by my birthday, a task which will not occur by the way, but I decided I needed to lose weight, get healthier and overall feel better. Then February hit - a woman I was very close to died unexpectedly and I hit bottom without even realizing I was falling. I stopped reading my bible, I stopped working out, I stopped caring about myself. I was sad. Then I was just plain angry. I not only got behind on my weightloss goal, I got behind in my Bible reading also. I took me about a month to hear God calling my name - He had been reaching out to me for over a month, and I had chosen to ignore Him, too wrapped up in my own pain.

While I had started getting back on the right track with God, and have grown leaps and bounds since God's swift kick in the tush, I still hadn't been able to get myself to focus on working out. I started walking on my lunch breaks but still wasn't in any routine. Then this weekend happened.

I realized how far I had drifted from my goal in January and how important good health is to my purpose and mission (in case you haven't heard, I'm going to India in August...) We did a lot of walking uphill this past weekend and while it hurt by the end of the weekend, I felt great! So, last night, after watching 24, at 10 o'clock at night I decided to workout. And man was it an awesome workout! I just kept going, and then instead of cooling off and going to bed, I did a ton of ab exercises.

The ironic thing about my life is the correlation to my working out and my Bible study. I tend to work out at night since I can't get up early! But the cool thing is that when I workout I get a burst of energy for about an hour afterwards, which I put to use pouring into my Bible. Before I could only stay awake for about 15-20 minutes for time with God, and now, here I am staying up later, and yet somehow having energy today.

So while I am in pain (eek!) I know that tonight I am going to workout yet again - because I want to for me, I need to for me and most importantly, I need to for God.
I guess pain can be good sometimes...