Suffering

Tag

November 25, 2021

THANKFULNESS IN THE AFTERMATH Walking up to the door of this holiday season, we anticipated the difficulty before us.  Working through loss and memories. Aching for a Bear-hug when he doesn’t come through the door. Our table full, yet groaning with an emptiness. The puzzle table missing his baritone laughter. Conversations lacking his dry humor and button-pushing banter. These things we anticipated. We worked to prepare ourselves for warm family gatherings, while hearts still ache and sorrows linger.   But,...

June 11, 2020

Silent Suffering

Can we hear them? Are the ears of our hearts open to the hushed groans and faint sighs of people suffering in silence? So many languish in daily distress as we rush by, faintly aware. Or oblivious. We press on, all systems go, while others endure on-going pain from a broken relationship with a parent, child, or spouse. Some are tormented with chronic physical pain. Others hide shame from emotional or physical abuse. Too many desperately try to breathe through...

January 16, 2020

The Secret to Enduring Physical Suffering

None of us escape physical suffering, either facing this hard in our own life or in the life of someone we love. With difficulty, we witness a sharp and clear mind trapped in a body that crumbles from disease or aging. Or the opposite, with a confused, fading mind in a physical body that remains strong. We wrestle with the “why” of such affliction, and struggle to understand the rightness and fairness of circumstances played out before us. And when...

August 29, 2019

Where is God When we Suffer?

Many hards we face go beyond circumstances and relationships. Sometimes the hard resides in our mind. Unanswered questions nag our spirit. Riddles and puzzles swirl and entangle us. Four times, from four sources, a hard question has crossed my recent path. Why do good people suffer? Or this version: how can a God who is love allow suffering? The news reminds us daily of a world full of pain. But perhaps more poignant weighs the personal suffering we witness and...