For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you might recall that I have been in extreme pain this week. Micah and I went to a fitness class called "boot camp" at our gym on Sunday night and by Monday morning I was already aching like mad. By the afternoon I could barely stand up, sit down, or get out of my car. I even had to put my hands on the toilet seat {!!!} to lower myself down. I know that's too much information, but it's the truth. At least it was my own bathroom, which I keep fairly clean. At one point in the day, I tweeted my college roommates to remind them of the only other time I've experienced this type of post-workout pain... the night we decided to do lunges all the way around our block. The aftermath was hands-on-the-toilet-seat painful. And one of them tweeted me back to say that lunges were the second worst decision of her life... the first being when she gave her hair to Locks of Love and walked out of the salon {in tears} with a mushroom haircut {which was somewhere between a bob and bowl cut... I was there as a witness.} Greenhouse Girls... one of our best moments. Love these ladies. Now bear with me as I share with you a tangent of my mind after this tweet. This is where I transition from aching muscles to hair dye to the Gospel. I began thinking that in all reality, my aching muscles from boot camp are only temporary. Hopefully, they will be gone by the time this post is published. Although I am in extreme pain right now, it will be over in a day or two, kind of like temporary hair dye that comes out with one or two washes. Then I thought of Camille's mushroom haircut as semi-permanent, like the kind of hair dye that gradually fades out over the course of 6-8 weeks. It didn't go away quite a quickly as my achy muscles; she had to deal with the awkward length for a few months as it grew out {and those months included lots of photographs as we were bridesmaids in our other roommates' weddings that summer!}. Then I began to think about what permanent pain looks like. Losing a limb or becoming a burn victim were the first things to come to mind {my mind is weird...} And then I stopped myself. Amputation and burns are not permanent. They are semi-permanent too. Sure, they last longer than a bad hair cut or a broken arm, but they are not permanent. Nothing painful is permanent. No trial is lasting. That is the hope of the Gospel. All injuries, sicknesses, sad circumstances, deformities... all are semi-permanent because of Christ. One of my favorite promises of the Bible says that...  "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."  Revelation 21:4 I had to put my mind in check during this tangent. My perspective can be so inaccurate sometimes. The apostle Paul says it best... So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. II Corinthians 4:16-18 If you are in Christ, nothing painful is permanent. Every trial and sickness we face on this earth is really nothing more than momentary achy muscles in light of eternity. Instead, Christ is permanent. And someday He will conquer every hurt and every sadness, even death itself. Sometimes, I must remind myself of that, because my sinful mind likes to think that the petty trials I face are much bigger than they actually are. Here's to remembering the hope we have in Christ during every semi-permanent trial in this life on earth. * Linking up with Call Me Blessed * ... Read more