Monday, December 2, 2013

L'Chaim

 
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord."
-Isaiah 55:8
 
~*

In our Western mindset, "suffering" is seen as inherently "bad", something to be avoided at all costs.  Our paradigm suggests if we are suffering, that "something must be wrong".  Whereas in other, more ancient cultures, suffering is seen as simply an integral and inevitable valid state, an intrinsic fundamental part of  the Life cycle itself.

No suffering, No Birth
 
When we attempt to subjugate suffering with pills, potions, drink, diversions, we stagnate in the very suffering from which we are trying to escape and stifle the intended end result: new Life.  When we resist the process, we stand in the way of the very excavation which will make room in our hearts to hold what comes after......
 
and there is an "after"
suffering need not have the last word,
if we'll let God finish His sentence.
 
When suffering is seen as some sort of stigma, we miss the opportunity, the doorway granted,
 
into new depth
 
into deeper communion
with each other
with our God
with the One "acquainted with grief"
 
we miss the Gift.
 
As we enter into this Season, celebrating the Birth which allowed all of us to be Reborn,
Let us remember the suffering that precipitated that Promise,
the death which preceded - and was servant to - the Life
Let us, in turn, see sorrow in a new light,
suffering for all that it is worth,
not as an end
but as a means to the intended end
which is,
of course,
and always,
 
The Beginning
 
~*


"I have come that they may have Life,
Abundant Life."
-John 10:10


3 comments:

Mary said...

Thank you for this beautiful reminder, and thank you for your gift of encouraging and loving words on my blog. They came at the most perfect of times...I am hopeful and expectant...in these weeds I seem to be in.

Much love to you dear Elizabeth.

Hindsfeet said...

sweet Mary, praying for answers for you....praying for a Way where there seems to be no way.......

peace peace peace my friend,
Elizabeth

Anonymous said...

Loved this, little sis. You are ever in my thoughts and prayers.