suffering(2/7)
How to pray for my family
It’s my sense that many Christians in the United States are confused about our social location. We believe that we’re living in Israel. As Israel’s prophets confronted the kings of Judah with a call for Torah living, so we are convinced that the American Church’s role is to call for a national return to Torah. We’re mistaken. We do not live in Israel, we live in Babylon. We are not Isaiah, we are Esther.…
The suffering and the patience
Current favorite Greek words? θλῖψις and ὑπομονή The first is translated “tribulation” in the KJV, but that translation doesn’t do much good for me who, after all these years, still can’t get the claws of dispensationalism totally out of my head. Seeing the word “tribulation”, I still envision either some future period of intense suffering or an exceptionally intense personal struggle. What I am discovering; however, is that the etymology of the word is a metaphor taken from intense pressure, as in the pressing of grapes to produce wine.…
Suffering undertaken for a higher cause
θλῖψις can be translated “apocalypic suffering” because it refers to the affliction suffered by the servants of God in the ongoing conflict with the “world rulers of this present darkness” as Ephesians calls them (6:12). This is not ordinary suffering that comes willy-nilly to everyone. This is suffering that is voluntarily undertaken for the sake of a higher cause. The entire Ring saga could be described as a tale of apocalyptic affliction endured so that the united kingdom [βασιλεία] of Arnor and Gondor can be restored to its rightful ruler.…
Confrontation with suffering does not lead to compassion
Confrontation with human suffering does not lead to compassion. It leads to anger, numbness, irritation, and rejection, because we don’t know how to deal with it all. It is too much. It is a heavy burden–more than we can carry… A burden becomes a heavy burden when it doesn’t feel connected to anything else. It is a burden that we have to carry by ourselves and is not shared. It is not part of anything larger.…
Per Pacem Ad Lucem
I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be A pleasant road; I do not ask that thou would'st take from me Aught of this load; I do not ask that flowers should always spring Beneath my feet; I know too well the poison and the sting Of things too sweet; For one thing only, Lord, dear Lord, I plead Lead me aright– Though strength should falter, and though heart should bleed– Through peace to light.…
It is a deeply intimate way of knowing God to co-create
Sometimes I think about Mary, the mother of Jesus. I think about the mystery of her co-creating Jesus with God. I believe in the immaculate conception, but that does not mean Jesus was an alien. He was not carried in Mary’s womb as foreign object. Mary was not an incubator hatching an egg. Jesus was flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone. Jesus’ DNA was part Mary’s DNA. His cells carried her mitochondria.…
The more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer
Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt.
In art we are helped to remember
In art, either as creators or participators, we are helped to remember some of the glorious things we have forgotten, and some of the terrible things we are asked to endure, we who are children of God by adoption and grace.
Lack of trust is a wound as grievous as whatever caused it
Creative scientists and saints expect revelation and do not fear it. Neither do children. But as we grow up and we are hurt, we learn not to trust, and that lack of trust is a wound as grievous as whatever caused it.