Tear It Down to Build It Up

Tear it down to build it up…this is how you build muscle. That soreness the days following your workout - that’s your muscle fibers torn up and the soreness you feel is them repairing themselves. Through the repairing process, they also, if all things are in place, GROW. They grow in size and they grow in strength.

You gotta tear it down to build it up.

Some people, like myself, get excited about this idea of tearing it down to build it up when it comes to weight lifting. That’s motivating to me. Some people are the opposite and don’t much enjoy the thought of tearing up their muscle fibers. But if you want your body to have more lean mass, this is a necessary part of the process.

In life, we most always find growth in our times of suffering and discomfort, in trauma and trial. We don’t grow when life is easy and we’re comfortable. Seasons like that don’t stretch us and grow us.

I can’t claim to get as excited about the idea of suffering and trials in life as I do about the idea of suffering in the gym to build my muscles and strengthen my body. Nope, I’m not crazy. I prefer the seasons of comfort any day over the seasons of suffering and discomfort. But I know that there is a purpose for the seasons of suffering. I know that a season of suffering, if embraced, can lead to great growth in my life and take me places I would never be able to go if I stay in my comfort zone.

Like a good workout that tears up muscle fibers, suffering tears down the parts of our character that aren’t serving us well in our lives. In our suffering we learn our character is torn down and rebuilt to make us stronger. It doesn’t feel good. It’s like that soreness after a good leg day, that feeling of discomfort lets you know that you are growing. Suffering is no fun. Seasons of discomfort and trial are not usually something any of us wish for in our lives, but yet, they are necessary if we are to grow.

Sometimes the seasons of suffering can come at you so fast, with little to no recovery in between, barely giving you chance to catch your breath. Sometimes we feel like we just get torn down, and torn down some more and wonder when are we going to grow. Unlike our workouts, we don’t get to plan the tearing down of our character but we do have a choice: we can embrace the suffering and know that there is purpose for growth in our pain or we can be stubborn and suffer and refuse to grow.

Let the discomfort tear you down so that you can be built up and GROW in your purpose. Next time you find yourself knee deep in suffering, remember: You gotta tear it down to build it up!