Page 135 - Push Back

parts, naturally birthing moms can get up shortly after labor if they desire, and walk around or
take a shower.

The euphoric feeling in which many naturally birthing moms experience is caused by the release
of endorphins in the body during labor. Endorphins are calming and pain-relieving hormones
the body naturally produces when dealing with pain. Tests have shown a woman’s body will not
release nearly as many endorphins if a pain medication is utilized.
[Source: http://naturallysavvy.com/Nest/the-benefits-of-natural-childbirth]

Like women in America, more than 90% of the church is seeking to avoid the necessary pain that
accompanies the birthing of new life. Whether the life is a newborn baby, or a spiritual son or
daughter of God, pain is both normal and necessary. The avoidance of pain ALWAYS results in
negative consequences. One consequence is that the delivery takes longer. The mother, by
choosing to ease her own discomfort and pain, actually prolongs the time that the baby within her
womb must struggle through the process of birth. There is certainly a spiritual parable here. It
takes much longer to produce spiritual offspring in the image of Christ when pain is avoided.

A second consequence is that unnatural medical procedures are often called upon to facilitate the
birth process. In the spiritual realm the doctors are often the ministers. Even as the use of forceps,
or pitocin drips, can result in harm to the baby, so too do the efforts of ministers who seek to
bring forth offspring without the church having to suffer.

A third consequence is difficulty in breastfeeding. Like babies born to mothers who took pain
drugs, many new Christians are born “dazed,” not fully alert. They are disoriented, and have
trouble finding their way spiritually in life. They may lack a healthy appetite for the life
sustaining milk of the word of God. They may look for sustenance in inferior manmade sources
even as many parents supply their newborns with infant formula rather than the mother’s breast
milk.

Will not a spiritual child that is birthed in pain have a greater love for the church who labored to
bring it forth? Will there not be a greater affinity between the new convert and the church who
laid down their life, and embraced suffering, to secure its new birth? When the church avoids the
pain of the cross it also lessens the bond of love between members.

One of the primary losses to the church when it seeks to avoid suffering, is that it cheats itself out
of the “euphoria” that results after one has passed through a difficult trial. The Scriptures state