Monday, August 23, 2010

My dearest God,

Does suffering change our place with you? Are we driven into your arms by suffering? Do we have greater access to you in times of great distress? What happens in suffering?

Today I think of 20 million Pakistanis suffering in their worst flooding. I think of 33 Chilean men stuck 2000 feet below ground, victims of a mining accident. Suffering, they are suffering, Lord.

What does suffering do to us? What is your design for suffering? What do you want to have happen as we suffer?

Is suffering a device intended to connect us to you? Is the plan for us to drop to our knees and beg for help? Does suffering push us to our limits and then beyond? In the wild, chaotic march of fear that spreads in suffering, where are you? What are you doing? Are doors opened more easily to your spirit? What part does unaffected people play in the suffering of others?

I can't help but think that we are partners in a compassionate plan to assist our suffering neighbors. When others suffer, it seems the rest of us are designed to do something and vice versa, when we suffer, others are to reach out to us. But where are you in the midst of all this? At the end of each suffering day, what is to have changed?

In our suffering
teach us
to come running
to you,
Almighty God.
Open us
to cry out
for help.
Show us
clear paths
to your compassion,
comfort and love.
Reveal to us,
dear God,
how to
trust you,
how to
find hope
in every condition
and situation,
how to
grow faith
to sustain us,
and how
to build courage
to act.
Then as
we ease
our way
toward wholeness,
however long
and whatever shape
it takes,
teach us
the way
of gratitude
through acts
of kindness,
service and love.

Love, Andrea