In her book, Joy in our Weakness – A gift of hope from the book of Revelation, Marva J. Dawn writes this:
The best way we can help each other in the suffering is to acknowledge its existence as an undelible part of our being in a world that has been marred by sin and human destructiveness – to lament with the Psalms over the seeming absence of God. We are much more able to fight the effects of sin if we are able to acknowledge its bitter reality more thoroughly. Then we are not so surprised and thwarted by the failure of our efforts to change things. We are able to keep on being faithful because the failures don’t daunt us. We know that they occur in an evil world where pain is inevitable.
Marva writes from a perspective of suffering that brings a depth to her writing on the issue that I can only but appreciate. Her preface says this about her own afflictions:
I write as one who is weak, but not weak enough. I struggle with physical handicaps enough to kow their great benefits for the Christian life, but I am not weak enough yet to accept their pain gladly. My brittle diabetes defies all the rules for taking care of its rapid blood-sugar swings. It is scary, life threatening, immobilizing. A crippled leg, frequent foot wounds and hand surgeries, constant intestinal pain from nerve dysfunction and the scar tissue after an intussesception, a blind eye and the threat of hemorrhages in the other, a deaf ear, cancer, kidney deficiencies, and other deteriorations keep reminding me of a doctor’s words a decade ago: “Let’s face it. You have debilitating diseases; you’ve had them a long time. It is downhill from here…”
The question of suffering is one that has been grappled with for generations. It is presented throughout the Bible through many stories and reflections. It can be seen in the very beginning story of Adam and Eve then Cain and Abel. It is present in the story of Israel and comes into full view in Job. It is reflected in the words of the Psalms and the ponderings in the Proverbs. It is tackled by the prophets and comes into full view through the life of Jesus – God with us. It is then carried down through the followers of Jesus to our very own time.
Marva calls us to know it, to face its bitter reality and to really acknowledge it. Suffering is often present in our individual lives in some way, shape or form – it is also present in the world around us in very obvious ways. An approach to the world that denies it or enables us to ignore it is a wrong approach. To truly help the world, we must truly acknowledge suffering and we must truly acknowledge our weakness.
This is part of the journey of lent. Let us embrace it. Let us see suffering, acknowledge it and recognise our own weakness within it.
Related posts:
