THE PAIN MUST NOT CHANGE YOU

In the heat of labour pains, Irewamiri decided that we should still focus on our normal morning routine: bathing our daughter, cooking meals.

She got into the kitchen and began to cook. When it got a bit tough, I would take over and go back and forth from her, receiving instructions on what she was cooking.

We did all to ensure that the pain was not our focus. It would not stop us from doing our best as we would normally do.

Pain wants to change you. Pain wants to be the centre of attraction. Pain wants you to focus on it alone. It pains pain a lot when you ignore it and refuse it permission to redefine you.

Pain wants to stop you from achieving other things. Pain would want you to abandon other good things you are meant to do. You must ensure that the pain does not change who you are.

If the pain of being mistreated by Potiphar, his wife, and colleagues who could not defend the truth became the focus of Joseph, he would have also mistreated the "ticket" out of the prison into the palace. The pain would have made him bitter. He would have killed the lineage he was raised to preserve.

Think about Jesus on the cross. In the midst of the pains of betrayal, denial, and embarrassment for a sin he never committed, he still did not change. He was taking care of family responsibilities, hearing the plea of a criminal, and praying forgiveness for his adversaries. The pain did not change him.

Think about David. He was being hunted down by King Saul, rejected by the Philistines, and now his wives and children (plus those of his men) have been carried away by the Amalekites, yet his men still saw a wounded Egyptian who needed help, and they stopped to care for him. The pains did not change them.

If the pains of what you expect turn you into something people do not expect, even your helpers would keep a distance from you. The pain must not change you.

A waiting Sarah must still be hospitable to a fault. A waiting Ruth must still be loving to a Naomi that seems like she had nothing left to offer. A waiting Zechariah must still carry out his priesthood duties. Zechariah did not "stab” the church. In doing what you can do, the seed is eventually birthed.

Do not get snobby. Do not become short-tempered. Do not abandon other things. Give yourself no excuse to make the pain your focus. Rather, ensure that you are committed to all God has blessed you with. In the mix of it all, what you await is knocking on the door.

The Israelites who focused on the snake bites died in the wilderness. Those who looked away from the pain and focused on the brazen serpent on the cross got healed.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”

Numbers 21:8-9 NKJV

Look and live. Look to Jesus now and live. Look away from those who accuse you falsely. Look away from those who treat unjustly. Look at the cross. Do not let the pain redefine you.

©️temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa