catapult magazine

I’m reading Thomas Merton’s “No Man is an Island” and am thinking about faith in many new ways. One thing that hit me was his meditation on suffering, particularly because I have been suffering physically and emotionally for the last several months. I found myself becoming very afraid of the illness I have been experiencing. And the illness also had the effect of making me scared of living, of doing every day things because I would try to avoid situations that would cause the illness and suffering (which was nearly every activity under the sun).

Merton’s meditation on suffering, though, reminds us that suffering is to be overcome, not avoided. Say what? For some reason, I kind of thought overcoming suffering meant killing it dead and going on to live suffer-free (or at least suffer-lite). Our whole culture is intent on avoiding suffering, but Christ’s model is that we must suffer fruitfully, meaningully. This is the task of Christians. So I am called to learn how to suffer well just as much as I am called to make music or teach philosophy or whatever other activities I am given to do. This is a strange concept for me, even though it is what Christianity has been about for some time now. I don’t know why I missed it before? Maybe it’s because I haven’t lived in a world of suffering so far. I can see why so many people in our culture were freaked out by Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Jesus in The Passion. Mel Gibson’s understanding of the importance of suffering well when one suffers (Braveheart’s final flaying, Hamlet’s tortured soul etc.) runs completely against our cultural norms. I actually understand Gibson’s seeming obsession with suffering after reading Merton. Overcoming suffering has more to do with removing the fear of suffering than avoiding it. When suffering comes, Christ models this overcoming by taking up the cross, and we do well to practice good suffering as well. The season of Lent could not have come at a better time for me.

I feel like I heard a sermon which touched on suffering recently, but I can’t find my notes on it. The takeaway I took from it was that Suffering produces character. At Annapolis we had a name for the things that didn’t make sense, but were difficult – Character Building. Jesus has an actual purpose in allowing us to suffer – to make us more like Him; indeed to perfect us.

The other takeaway from the sermon was that temptation is an offer to avoid the suffering, a shortcut. I often look for the shortcut, the convenient way out of the suffering … but by looking for and taking the shortcut I am actually giving in to temptation, which attempts to nullify the growth Christ is working into my life. Knowing this I notice myself looking for those shortcuts much more often than I did before. Now I can ask Christ to be my strength in weakness, because left to my own devices I notice that I always pick the shortcut instead of accepting the suffering. “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” (2 Cor 12:9)

He always meets me when I specifically bring my suffering or weakness to Him. He doesn’t take away the suffering, He provides the grace to persist in it. That way I can give Him the glory for sustaining me, instead of claiming the glory for finding a way out.

From this perspective the verses about “Count it all joy when you fall into temptations” start to make more sense to me. The rejoicing is not manufactured by pasting a smile on one’s face and smiling at everything. It comes from asking God to give me His perspective on my current suffering. Then He shows me that because He loves me, He is growing me, and is making Himself known through me … now that’s something I can rejoice about! Not manufactured – God-given.

Jesus, change my attitude to one of gladness in boasting about my weaknesses, because my natural inclination is to hide my weaknesses and boast about my strength.

Grace and peace,
David
San Diego

Jesus suffered so we could have victory, not defeat.

We are called to use the things Jesus died for us to have and RESIST the things He suffered to set us free from…we aren’t supposed to lay down and let darkness control our lives.