Trisha Mugo

Real Grace. For Real Life.

When Spiritual Growth Hurts

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Josh

We had finished lunch, and my son slid down from his booster chair and took two steps from the table before he started howling in pain.

I noticed agony written across his face.

I carried him to the couch and cradled him in my arms for several minutes. He didn’t want to walk or put any weight on his left leg. As tears fell down his face he pointed to his left kneecap

The pain sent him back to the couch all afternoon. He tried to hobble away a few times, but he never made it far.

I didn’t worry about it too much. Somewhere along the way I had read about growing pains and knew a growth plate lived near the kneecap.

As we walked down the stairs the next morning, his hand in mine, I reassured him, “Those were probably just growing pains.”

And in that moment I heard the Lord whispering the same thing to me. These pains of the past few months have been growing pains.

My spiritual bones have stretched forth in all directions. And it hurts. It explains the bone-deep ache and soreness I’ve felt the last few months.

But pain often points to growth. It’s evidence that we’re moving forward. Growth shows us we’re living, and I’m trying to welcome life every chance I have, even when it’s mixed with pain.

Sometimes growth can only be appreciated in retrospect, when heads lean against door frames and pencil lines sketch the progress.

Parents know when a growth spurt threatens. They see the ramp up in hunger just like I noticed my son devour three pieces of egg casserole that morning.

If you’re in the middle of a season of growth and pain, increase your intake of the Word of God. You’re going to need it.

And take some time to relish the fact that God, “the author and finisher of your faith” (Heb. 12:3), is growing you.

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns,” (Philippians 1:6).

That Time I Thought I had Lice—How to Overcome Irrational Fears

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Photo via Creative Commons, Flickr
Photo via Creative Commons, Flickr

It all started when we had head lice one summer.

Yeah, now you’re feeling a little itchy, aren’t you? One mention of the word, lice, makes all of us scratch our heads.

Once, in college, a friend of mine called me to tell me she had contracted the little buggers. Since we had hung out nonstop the weekend before, I instantly felt my scalp crawl.

I washed everything that could fit in the machine and doused the rest in pesticides. I shampooed my hair way more than the bottle of RID recommended.

Then a few days later, she calls and says it was a false alarm. She never had lice. We laughed about it that day and learned the power of suggestion.

So, a decade later when my family picked up a case of head lice, I probably shouldn’t have freaked out. But the ick factor pushed me into the irrational fear zone.

We did the normal things combined with some obsessive combing. Just to be sure I hired professional nit pickers, (yes, that’s a real thing) and we came up clean.

Except, I didn’t believe it.

And that’s the thing with irrational fear. Once it’s burrowed its way into your mind, logic doesn’t turn it off.

I kept combing and checking my head in mirrors. Months later I had a friend at church check my head. Five months later I made my mom look.

I worried the worst at night. And when I’m really stressed out I still have lice nightmares.

So, yeah, the fear of lice seems a little silly, but I wanted to tell my story because you might have your own fear that won’t evacuate.

I have another friend who grew up on a steady diet of the TV show, Cops, and today she rarely feels safe in new places. I know women who are afraid to walk alone even in safe neighborhoods.

So, if this hits home for you today, know that God doesn’t want you to live in fear.

I asked God to deliver me from my lice phobia, and he did. Worship and filling my mind with the beauty of God cured me.

And this article helped. In it John Piper says, “Most of us suffer from all-consuming puny problems because we are not enthralled by a great God or swept up in any magnificent cause.”

Piper says freedom from irrational fear comes from filling our minds with “big and powerful realities.”

So if you think there’s a razor blade in your banana or battle some other neurotic fear, take Piper’s advice.

“Don’t tell him the razor isn’t there. Take him for a walk around the lake. Show him the squirrels chasing, the robins working, the fuzzy tassels on the elm. Recite to him some splendid poem that blew away the clouds for you today. Exult with him in some promise…“The hand of our God is for good upon them that seek him” (Ezra 8:22). God may grant in a year or two that he realize there are bananas on his cereal—and have been for months!”