On Wednesday I filled you all in on an immense physical trial that I went through last year. I drew out 6 important life lessons that I learned from the pain, but I also nailed down 8 important truths that I think God was trying to teach me through that hardship.

One of the important things that we need to remember when it comes to physical pain is that God isn't really worried about us being happy all the time and having an easy life. He is more concerned with us living a Holy life and becoming more like the role model of Jesus every day!

Trials, pain, and suffering... they serve a purpose by making us stronger.

Here is the original post from last year about the 8 Things God Taught Me Through Back Pain.

Pain isn't fun. Trials aren't fun. Suffering... it is just not fun.

But life isn't easy... pain and suffering are parts of life. The important thing isn't necessarily avoiding pain. It is how we cope when the pain comes, and what we take away from the experience when the pain leaves.

Last year, I had a long stretch of intense back pain for over 5 months. I couldn't sleep through the night unless I took several different types of drugs, and even then it was no guarantee. Work was torture, simply sitting in a desk was uncomfortable. I couldn't focus, I couldn't enjoy the simple things in life, I couldn't even ride a mountain bike... the only thing I was worried about was getting rid of the pain.

Hopefully that kind of pain is behind me. And while I pray it is, I also pray that I continue to hold onto the things that I learned through that pain.

Here is a post I wrote last year about 6 of the things I was learning from back pain.

I highly recommend that you read it, so hopefully you won't have to go through the kind of pain I did to learn these lessons!

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"The best among men do not remember hostilities; they see the virtues, not the faults, and they do not stoop to enmity. It is the lowliest that hurl insults in a quarrel, Yudhisthira; the middling ones return the insults, but the best and the steady ones never babble about hostile insults, spoken or unspoken. The good only remember the good that was done, not the hostile deeds, acknowledging it because they have confidence in themselves." 

--Dhrtarastra in the Mahabharata

Many times, I feel like it is so ingrained in our nature to want to lash back at those who attack us. We may even have good reasons and good logic on our side, but as this quotation illustrates, that is still not the best course of action.

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I was recently reminded that everything in this world is fleeting. So many of the things that we take for granted and think will be there tomorrow and the next day and the day after that just might not be.

This is an guest post authored by Nick Roen.

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This past April was a hectic month in my (Greg's) personal life this month, what with finishing up my semester at college complete with final exams, and an amazing trip to California for the Sea Otter Classic. On top of all that, my wife and I are moving. Naturally, the amount of time I've been able to spend writing hasn't been quite what I'd like it to be. I would like to thank AJ so much for picking up the slack and posting the vast majority of the articles this month. Great work dude!

Spread out over the course of the month, AJ has written an amazing, in-depth series about how to share the Christian faith with others. So far, he has published 4 detailed posts as he walks through the topic. Be sure to check this series out!

Thank you again for reading Cranial Collision. We'll hopefully be back with another update email sooner rather then later!

-The Cranial Collision Crew

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