Passionate Purpose Is A Painkiller

I’m going to be REALLY direct with you today…

The desire to avoid pain might be one of the most dangerous things in your life right now.

I know that sounds backwards. Bear with me.

Because I lived the alternative. And the alternative is Sophia Joy asleep in my arms in a hospital room while I ugly cry happy tears all over her brand new little head.

Let me back up.

Most of you know I have a connective tissue condition called EDS. And for years pain was the dominant feature of my existence. Daily. Relentless. The kind that makes your world very small and very heavy.

And I had a choice.

I could pursue comfort. Rest when it hurt. Stop when it got hard. Protect myself from every painful thing my body was telling me to avoid. That path was available to me and honestly it was very tempting on a lot of days.

Or I could learn to read my pain. Figure out what it was telling me. And pursue the RIGHT kind.

If I had pursued comfort I would be in a wheelchair today.

Because with EDS the muscles that support your joints atrophy QUICKLY, much quicker than the average person, without consistent strengthening work. And atrophy with this condition does not just mean weakness. It means losing function. It means losing independence. It means a very different hospital room moment with Sophia Joy.

The obstacle of pain was not blocking my path to that moment.

The obstacle WAS the path.

And the only reason I could walk it is because I learned to stop asking how do I make this stop and start asking what is this trying to build in me and teach me.

Jesus did this too.

Hebrews 12:2 says He endured the cross for the JOY set before Him.

Not by focusing on the cross. By focusing on what was waiting on the other side of it.

He did not endure the most painful thing in human history by minimizing the pain or pretending it was not real.

He endured it by fixing His eyes on the purpose that made the pain worth walking through.

That is not a coping mechanism.

That is the most powerful painkiller in existence.

Passionate purpose.

Friend, I am telling you. There were days in that decade of physical work when I was exhausted and hurting and I wanted to quit so badly. And what kept me going was not willpower. It was not a good attitude. It was not even faith in the abstract sense.

It was a little face I had not met yet.

It was the thought of Sophia Joy.

I ignored the pain because I was so focused on what was ahead of me. Purpose did not remove the obstacle. It made the obstacle worth walking through.

Now listen, I get it. Not all pain deserves to be pushed through.

This is where it gets practical because I have watched women use "the obstacle is the way" as an excuse to run themselves into the ground. To ignore genuine warning signals. To push through things that needed to heal and create damage that cost them months or years.

That is not faith. That is foolishness. And I have done it too.

So how do you tell the difference?

Here are the questions I have learned to ask:

Am I stopping because I am genuinely unwilling to be uncomfortable? Or am I stopping because pushing through will create real injury? (whether physical , emotional, or spiritual)

These feel similar but they are not the same thing at all.

Discomfort is not damage. Hard is not harmful.

But there IS a difference between the sore muscles that mean something weak is getting stronger and the sharp specific pain that means something is genuinely wrong and needs to be protected while it heals.

A broken bone needs to be set and protected. That is not weakness. That is wisdom.

But sore muscles after hard work? Stopping because of those means atrophy. The very weakness you were trying to overcome gets worse because you quit.

Ask yourself honestly: is this discomfort or is this damage?

Is the Holy Spirit present IN this pain moving me through it? Or is He warning me away from something specific?

One has a sense of hard but right underneath it. The other has a persistent warning that will not quiet down no matter how much you pray around it.

Get still enough to notice the difference. It is there if you look for it.

What will it cost me to stop? And what will the pay off be if I keep going?

This is the question that cuts through the noise faster than anything else. Lay both options on the table honestly. What does stopping actually produce? What does pushing through actually produce?

There are SOME types of pain that do not disappear with rest. They are just something we have to go through.

I knew what stopping would cost me. A wheelchair. Sophia Joy from a distance instead of in my arms.

That knowledge did not make the pain disappear. But it made the path clear.

Am I avoiding this because it is genuinely not mine to carry right now? Or because I am afraid of what it will cost me?

The desire to avoid ALL pain will actually kill you.

I know that sounds extreme. But stay with me.

Physically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually…the relentless pursuit of comfort produces a life that gets smaller and weaker and more fragile over time. You avoid the hard conversation and the relationship slowly dies. You avoid the painful calling and the gifts God put in you slowly atrophy. You avoid the difficult season and you never develop the resilience that was waiting for you on the other side of it.

Comfort is not safety.

Continuous comfort is atrophy.

What you actually need is not less pain. It is the RIGHT pain. The pain that grows you. The pain that expands your capacity. The pain that changes who you are in ways that could not have happened any other way.

Pursue THAT pain.

With your eyes fixed on the joy set before you. On the Sophia Joy waiting on the other side of your decade of hard decisions.

Because the obstacle is not in your way.

The obstacle IS the way.

And passionate purpose is what makes it walkable. 💙

In passionate purpose,
Dorothy

Father,

I confess that I have spent so much energy pursuing comfort when You were calling me to pursue growth.

Forgive me for stopping when You were saying keep going. For calling fear wisdom and avoidance rest. For shrinking back from the very pain that was building something in me I desperately needed.

Give me discernment today to know the difference between what needs to heal and what needs to strengthen. Between the warning signal that says stop and protect and the growth edge that says keep going and trust Me.

Help me fix my eyes on the joy set before me. On the purpose You placed in me before the foundations of the world. Let that purpose be so clear and so consuming that it becomes the painkiller that keeps me moving when everything in me wants to stop.

I do not want a comfortable life. I want a purposeful one.

And I trust You with every step it takes to get there.

In Jesus' mighty name,

Amen.

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