Suffering

Listening to "Birds of Paradise" by The Cult

I've gone through a transformation over the past few years, and it has been difficult. Saying that the journey is complete wouldn't be telling the whole truth, but to say my newfound strength and peace is incomplete isn't exactly right either. I think I've reached a place where the gaps in my life aren't nearly the catastrophe they would have been a few years ago. Being "content in all things and all seasons" is finally becoming a reality.

Malcolm Muggeridge once said the following about suffering:

"Supposing you eliminated suffering. What a dreadful place the world would be! I would almost rather eliminate happiness. The world would be the most ghastly place because everything that corrects the tendency of this unspeakable little creature, man, to feel over-important and over-pleased with himself would disappear. He's bad enough now, but he would be absolutely intolerable if he never suffered."

The places in our life where we are incomplete, find ourselves lacking, or are sources of suffering don't exist to destroy us, but if we let it, we can channel it as a source of humility. With this humility, we are finally able to reach out and connect through others with empathy, heal relationships where the needs of the other supersede our needs being met or winning an argument. Humility allows us to love others for who they are, not what they can do for us.

With love, comes sacrifice. You cannot say that you truly love someone and not be willing to sacrifice something for it; especially when you are loving someone for who they are and not what they can do for you. We are all familiar with the scripture I Corinthians 13:4-13 where the very definition of love is given to us and surprisingly, none of the characteristics depend on the response of the other. The scripture goes on to say when we are not striving for such love, we are like self-centered children. Finally we are shown if we do not strive for this type of love, its because we are blind to who we are and we travel in the opposite direction of perfection.

Like I said, I'm no where close to fully understanding this or walking it out; however, I do find a great deal of peace and strength from this. Also, I have been able to find healing and reconciliation in areas of my life I thought would never find resolution on this side of eternity. While it has been difficult, I am grateful for the suffering as I have earned strength and peace. I am grateful for life's lessons that have allowed me to have the humility to permit those I've wronged have their say and find healing in their life. Finally, I am grateful for this experience because it has taught me to love unconditionally and appreciate people for who they are.