I put in the description of my blog that I would be examining joy and suffering, and the transition between them. I had recently finished a book entitled "Transforming Suffering" that had been written during a conference on suffering run by monks at Gethsemane. The book had a big impact on me, and somehow I knew I would take some of the philosophies expressed in the book, and make them my own. I had no idea how much I would end up dwelling on these matters. But it seems to me that we spend a lot more of our time facing trials that can and sometimes do lead to suffering.
I take the bus to work. I live near my work, and it is very convenient to do. This week, I have been eavesdropping on conversations, not so much intentionally as due to the fact that on a bus, you cannot really avoid it. I normally filter it all out and continue on in the mental haze that a bus ride usually is for me. But this week I listened.
One woman, two days ago, was talking to a friend, and it was apparent from some of the things that she said that she had had a loss. It sounded like it might have been a child. She told her friend that, "with my luck, I'm going to make it to ninety two." Her friend asked what she meant, not quite grasping it, and the woman indicated she meant her lifespan. She then said, "I'd rather check out at sixty." Her friend was aghast - so was I. But she made it clear that she could not bear to go on longer than that. She said she was prone to depression, and said that it is probably all downhill from sixty. Today there was more. Another woman was talking about a friend who was battling cancer.
One other day this week, a bus I was on passed a sign in front of a church that said, "Don't pray for a lighter load; pray for a stronger back." From what I see around me, I think that whoever thought that up understands how life truly is.
We are not immune to suffering. In the early days of humanity, people did a lot of praying for miserable conditions to change, for deliverance from enemies, for food, shelter, and rain. With Jesus came a somewhat new teaching. He gave us a prayer for all times, a simple prayer of trust and deliverance, and about it he said, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask for it."
He also gave us the beatitudes, which I have touched on before. The beatitudes in some way are a follow up to Solomon's lament about there being a time to laugh, and a time to mourn, everything having a season. Where Solomon says this with a sense of resignation, the beatitudes tell us that we are not adrift in the sea - in the Luke version, those who mourn, will laugh again. In the traditional Matthew formulation, those who mourn will be comforted.
We cannot come to appreciate everything God has given us, if we do not understand that it is temporary, and fleeting. A sunset takes only minutes, and one like it never comes again. Mourning is in that sense a gift of God, not only our way of coping with loss, but the very risk inherent in joy that makes us appreciate joy all the more. We enjoy God's good gifts as much as we do, because we only have a fleeting opportunity to immerse ourselves in them, and thank God in the moment for having them.
Ask for a stronger back. We need to mourn, but mourning does not need to be despair.
"Ask, and you shall receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7
No comments:
Post a Comment