A psychiatrist once said, with a tilt and a grin,
“There’s pain to avoid and pleasure to be in.
Those two forces drive us from morning until night.
We run from the pain and chase the fun that feels right.”
I scratched at my beard and said, “Wait just a second.”
There must be a greater force than those, I reckoned.
“When pleasing the Lord is the aim of our sight,
We’ll suffer through pain just to do what is right.”
He nodded. He smiled. “Yes, that’s surely so.”
The greater reward tells us which way to go.
A calling can pull us where comfort won’t stay,
And joy may arrive through a much harder way.
Athletes will train until their muscles all scream.
They shun the couch and the dream of ice cream.
Why suffer such strain, such sweat, and such toil?
Gold-medal hopes or fruit from tilling the soil.
Moses once stood where pleasures were bright,
With sin for a season that might have seemed right.
He turned from the feast that would fade and depart,
Choosing joy from pleasing the Lord with all his heart.
So maybe our growth doesn’t bloom by delight,
Or dodging all that pain with a tremble of fright.
We become strong when we choose through the strain—
To do what is right … where there’s much more to gain.
