The Pain Will Make it More Beautiful

One of the most life impacting books I have read is by Donald Miller called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I love his writing style, I love the transparency that he writes with. But I think the reason I resonate with this book so much is that our journeys have some strong similarities. I highly recommend the book and encourage you to read it. There is one quote in it that has rocked me (in an encouraging way). He is talking about his decision to hike to Machu Picchu:

And it was like Carlos said, because you can take a bus to Machu Picchu; you can take a train and then a bus, and you can hike a mile to the Sun Gate. But the people who took the bus didn’t experience the city as we experienced the city. The pain made the city more beautiful. The story made us different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and showed up at the ending an easier way. It made me think about the hard lives so many people have had, the sacrifices they’ve endured, and how those people will see heaven differently from those of us who have had easier lives.

Maybe you have spent years hiking, while you watched others take the bus. Maybe your dream hasn’t been reached as easily as you thought. Maybe the journey of your marriage has brought you more pain than you think you can bear. Maybe the loss of a child or the inability to have children has brought grief to your heart and complication to your marriage. Maybe you resent people in your life, co-workers, friends, siblings who seem to find the express train to their destination while you wade through dysfunction, delays and disappointment.

I just want you to know, THE PAIN WILL MAKE THE CITY MORE BEAUTIFUL. What you are going through right now, what you have gone through in the past, what you will go through in the future will give you a glimpse of God in ways that other people won’t get. Stay the course. Keep fighting. Keep hiking. Keep taking steps. The story God is writing with your life is one that He longs to use to change you in ways that just showing up at the end of the journey won’t. The pain makes it all more beautiful.