In The Critical Journey Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich write about the inevitability of suffering in our journey of life (13):
We cannot escape most of the crisis in our lives, nor should we. In fact, these events frequently provide the energy for movement on our spiritual journey, even when we are stuck along the way … A crisis can knock us off balance, making us afraid, vulnerable, and ripe for change … If we become bitter or too resistant, we can get very stuck. But if we let the change or crisis touch us, if we live with it and embrace it as difficult as that is, we are more likely to grow and to move eventually to another stage or spiral in our journey. When we are most vulnerable, we have the best chance to learn and move along the way. In the midst of pain there is promise.
They propose a hard truth–pain can lead to progress. Discomfort can lead to development. Suffering can be the step to the next stage in our sojourn.
Two authors remind us that what we see in our lives as, well, manure, may in fact be fertilizer. Lysa TerKeurst, in It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered, writes this:
“I have honest feelings where I want to throw my hands up in utter frustration and yell about the unfairness of it all. To deny my feelings any voice is to rob me of being human. But to let my feelings be the only voice will rob my soul of healing perspectives with which God wants to comfort me and carry me forward. My feelings and my faith will almost certainly come into conflict with each other. My feelings see rotten situations as absolutely unnecessary hurt that stinks. My soul sees it as fertilizer for a better future. Both these perspectives are real.
Pain in the present may, indeed, be fertilizer for the future.
T. D. Jakes in Crushing: God Turns Pressure Into Power writes similarly (30, 43-44):
“The dirty place became the nurturing soil that enabled you to grow and blossom in ways you would never have experienced sitting in the safety of a greenhouse … there are times when we require more nutrients to grow. Instead of infusing us with more life, the Vinedresser steps in with more rubbish and refuse, the miracle of mulch, because our new life comes only on the heels of something that died.”
In other words, something is being accomplished even in the midst of our agony.
Holding on to this truth is part of self-care. We see this reflected in Jesus’ statement from the cross:
It is finished (Jn. 19:30)
Heard in one way, this is a statement about duration. Hard times don’t endure. They come to an end.
Heard in another way, this is a statement about creation. Hard times aren’t for nothing. They result in something new coming to life within us and within our world.
In our previous post, we considered the former. Trials are temporary. They do not last.
In this post, we consider the latter. Something transformative happened through the suffering of Jesus. Something of great worth was accomplished. A vital work was completed.
Similarly, pain produces something in us and in our world. Virtue finds new depth and expression. Vice is pruned back. Character is developed. Values are clarified. Perspectives are gained.
Look back on a painful time in your life. How would you complete this sentence regarding that season? “That pain produced ____________________.”Our current Covid-19 crisis is so hard. The losses are staggering. But, it’s not going to last forever. It, too, will come to an end. And … in the meantime … something is happening. I don’t find it helpful to think God caused this virus. But I do find it helpful to think he’s at work in it and around it. Identify what God’s up to in you and around you through this suffering. That’s a key step toward self-care.
