In the last two blogs, I’ve talked about suffering for wrongdoing and suffering out of compassion and community. The third type of suffering is that which defines us, refines us, disciplines us, and empowers us to live and grow productively. Growth is suffering because it is hard and uncomfortable work learning. Learning requires you to go where you’ve never gone, do what you’ve never done, and/or think what you’ve never thought before. Repetition is practice and strengthening, after learning. Sometimes that can cause suffering too. Ask any athlete, “No pain, no gain.” It is the pain of the caterpillar’s painful push through the small opening of the cocoon that forces the fluids in its body to the wings so it can fulfill its destiny and fly.

I wonder what seeds would say. “You’ve shoved me in this dark dirt, given me a little water, forced me to put down roots and push up through the heavy soil for a little sunlight? Once I get there, my work has only begun? I’ve got to do leaves, flowers, and make my own seeds? You pick the best fruit I have for yourself and require me to make more?”

Many of the wise tell us that anything gained without effort is valued little and easily lost. That which costs us becomes valuable and is maintained more carefully. Suffering creates value because of the cost.

The most admired people from all fields of interest are those who have overcome severe adversity to accomplish what they could only accomplish in the dire straits within which they found themselves. Our movies and books are filled with come from behind, underdog, stories because in real life or fiction, they inspire us. These are people who find their true gifting, strength, adaptability, and endurance in the challenge. War medals are given to the overcomer with the greatest medals to the greatest overcomers. Suffering requires people to excel and push beyond their known limitations into areas that surpass what they believe they could do. They had to conquer themselves in fighting and overcoming the adversity.

Jesus pressed in to His suffering to accomplish the rescue heaven desired. He understood the purpose of the hardship and did not get lost in blame, shame, avoidance, or shifting accountability. He chose the goal over the inconvenience, the vision over the discomfort, the hope over the pain. In doing so, He gave us an example. We can willingly, even joyfully, let heaven push our bloated bodies through the cocoon opening into the beauty created for us.

Humans are built for community. We are meant for each other. Community is essential for survival. It takes two to create children, and children add to the crowd. The crowd only grows.

A couple wrote about their completely independent survival in the extreme north for a year. It was impressive, but inaccurate. It took the entire planet to make it possible for them to appear self sufficient. Governments were involved. Rescue set ups were involved. Communications, weapons, camping gear, clothing, and accumulated knowledge were involved. They rode on the back of others. Self sufficiency is a myth that is very popular in America, but it is a myth, an image and not a reality. We are a part of each other, for better or worse.

We might see ourselves as separate from others, but we are not. I was part of the failings of the educational system I served for thirty-three years, even while I tried to overcome some of the failings I recognized. I was a piece of a machine and not separate from it. I was part of its failing and part of its success. We suffer together because we are inseparably a part of each other.

We remind people at the museum that they are looking at artifacts produced by people that lived in a bubble created by their knowledge base and their circumstances. Their thoughts and ideas were shaped and defined by their place on the historical timeline, even as they changed the future. All people suffered the effects of the Civil War, even European countries who did not take part. We are citizens of this planet, impacted by the events all around our globe.

Compassion is required because all suffer, and all suffer because others suffer. Compassion is a conduit through which healing can take place because it embraces love, the power of positive change. Jesus is the epitome of love and compassion, even when He was most wronged by the ones He came to help. He gave us tools to deal with suffering, as individuals and as community members.

Probably the most common question related to suffering is “What did they do wrong?” This view is based in those who see God as the God of judgement and punishment. That is a dominant image of God as the angry, “I’ll get you for that” type of being. It is a truly one dimensional image based more on our behavior than on God. Labels are one dimensional and limit complex people, or God, to an unrealistic cage. It is easy to simplify things to their point of greatest distortion because some people take comfort in uncomplicating complicated things. Thinking and dealing with complicated is hard work.

Doing wrong can cause suffering. The Germans and Japanese performed all forms of despicable cruelties in WWII. The response to them was in like kind. You get what you give or reap what you sow is a common proverb.

All cultures have value systems of right and wrong and justice systems that deal with punishment for wrongdoing. Criminal justice is a piece of every culture. It should not be a surprise that the Kingdom of God would have a justice system as a part of its total culture. It is not the whole of heavenly culture, but it is a part. How could heaven be heaven without justice and the other high values, which are perfect there.

Children have a tendency to reveal things that we, as adults, like to think have gone away as we got older. They remind us that we may not have as much a problem with doing wrong as we have with being caught. We watch people in power and influence get away with things, seemingly for extended periods of time, without being caught and punished. We are offended. (God often takes the blame for this. It seems He gets blamed when we get caught and when others don’t.) We want Justice. We want it fair and consistent (sometimes as long as it doesn’t include us).

Suffering is a complex issue because it doesn’t just involve crime and punishment. We want our justice system to be as near perfect as possible, but not as the fascists and totalitarian governments provide it. We want some compassion and balance with the potential for forgiveness and making things right, which is the subject of the next blog. Stay tuned, and give God a break. He is far bigger than crime and punishment. You are already caught when you fail because you know it when no one else does. He is interested in you as an entire being, not just measuring you on the scale of right and wrong.

We are living in a planetary war zone beyond the battlefields of gun and cannon. Harsh reality. Lust, gluttony, greed, envy, pride all create harm and potential devastation to others. Selfishness is the weapon of choice. News, movies, and social media of all kinds reflect the power plays from politics to the individual.

The harm done is as harsh, but not as visible as the battlefield. Cruelty is alive and well on this planet. We see the walking dead and maimed. We see people crippled by self treatment of drugs and alcohol, drop outs, derelicts with psychiatrists and care centers flooded by the injured. There are also all those who hide in plain sight, survivors, wounded but struggling on. Who among us hasn’t suffered trauma that impacts our lives?

There are warriors who fight against the trauma and pain in life. Wounded warriors are those who were injured themselves and fought to overcome it and work to help others overcome. There are agencies and care facilities who work against the tide of injuries. There are churches who recognize the power of God to heal the broken hearted.

Christ established God’s healing ministry on earth while He walked in the flesh and continues it through the work of the Holy Spirit today. All of us need this healing and need to be a part of this healing for others. We can choose to help or harm. Compassion is a choice. Love is a decision. Compassion and love are hard because they require a person to sacrifice themselves. The good is worth it for the individual and the world around them. The warriors are the people that make the world a good place to live.

I am grateful beyond my ability to express it for the many people who have been the agents of healing in my life. They are the heroes on the battlefield and in life. Give thanks to our military for protecting our freedoms. Give thanks to the life warriors who work to free minds and hearts. Give thanks that God opened heaven’s doors that we might find continuous help and encouragement beyond anything man can do alone.

It is commonly said that if you lead, others will follow. If you lead, and no one follows, you are just out for a walk. The same can be said of an “influencer.” A true influencer changes things. Many self labeled influencers are just people putting on a show because little or nothing changes. Working to be seen is not the same as being an influence.

Life imitation becomes life style after it becomes ingrained in behavior. That is why parents have always warned their children to choose the right friends, choose the right influence. There is tremendous power in the associations you have or choose. There is tremendous power in the community which surrounds you. We are more heavily influenced by our culture, our country, and the general beliefs of our world than we imagine. We are being bombarded every day from every angle. You can see this power in history because the historical people were confined to their knowledge base and circumstances during the time of their lives.

So many people tend to build associations by convenience instead of by intent. A person’s faith life should be an exception, even if all other associations and influences are through circumstances or through associations that weren’t chosen, and even if influences are convenience based instead of intentional. Food for the soul is far more important than food for the body.

Be careful with yourself. You are far more important than you may consider. Life is far more than the things we see around us. It is important to consider questions like where does love come from because it is more than a feeling. Love requires someone to humble themselves to care for another. Humility is not a natural human trait because we are self based creatures. Where did it come from? Where did selflessness come from? Where did the other values like honor, justice, faithfulness and the like come from? To truly exhibit those values, one has to give up themselves, contrary to the human nature.

There is a God in heaven whose nature is based on the best of all values humans desire above all others and are unable to achieve completely on their own. Our desire and His nature is proof of His existence. Even atheists believe in and desire the high qualities which are beyond human nature to produce. God’s interventions have introduced and given examples of the high values through history.

Jesus was an example of value beyond measure. He, as God, came and served man, selfless. He lived in the limitations of a man to show His understanding and compassion. He died to give the people killing Him, and all others, a chance to realize God. He rose from the dead to prove His divinity and validate the very opportunity He taught and gave us. Jesus should be our first influencer above all others.

Stained glass is highly complicated. You start with a design. For many churches the design is an image of an excerpt from the Bible. The image is created like a puzzle of individual pieces. Glass has to be found to fit the shape, color, and textures needed and be further refined by painting, staining, and etching as needed. The glass is scored, broken, and ground to fit the shape designated. Leading is put around each piece, soldered and stained. Sections of the glass are wired together. Amazing and beautiful, especially when the light flows through and shows the true beauty and relates the story.

People are like that. I went to an Uplift Columbia meeting in which individuals and resources gathered to create a coalition that will provide for the disenfranchised in our county. Churches, health care, and social agencies often under perform because people don’t know what is available or how to access the gifts those resources want to share with those in need. They gathered to share what they have and create a county team of healing services.

Many of the most passionate care providers were people who were themselves broken glass and shattered lives. They had been reclaimed from alcohol, drugs, mental illness, and every sort of distress available in this pain filled world. They found healing and now passionately work to provide it for and to others. They are beautiful stained glass from shattered life pieces reformed through Jesus’s healing hands. Now, the light of God’s love flows through them to beautify their surroundings and tell a story of hope to the world around them. They have become artists in the Lord’s grace, working with others like themselves, so the Lord can create the hope that beautifies our world.

These walking stained glass art pieces are the church on the street for those in need. They are the conduit of God’s light to others. Their brokenness can still be seen in the colors, shapes, leading, and structure, but they are so much more than the pieces. They are the beauty of God’s promise and the power of God’s plan and hope.

Anyone who has tried to free a rusty hinge or rusted gear knows the difficulty. It is a hard job, a difficult process, and one that may break or damage, possibly irreparably, the parts of the machine being freed. Heat, torque, and chemicals might be the first level attempts to free the parts. A cutting torch or similar device might be used if the parts can’t be saved. One way or the other, the device has to be freed to return use and productivity. I often feel that I’m getting rusty as I age. However, ingrained habits and processes can get thoroughly stuck at any age and become excessively difficult to change.

Thought and emotion can become so intrenched in the soul that it can be considered no different than a gear fused to its counterpart through rust. The work to free the thought and emotion can easily be as extreme to the soul as compared to the efforts to release the rusted gear with the same risk of potentially destroying its parts. The heart and soul, so welded/rusted to the past, cannot see or acknowledge a new direction or movement away from the old direction without humility. Increments of effort, like chemical and torque, can push toward revelation, but it is the persistent effort that makes the difference. It is not a single-try ordeal. It takes a massive effort of energy and commitment to put the gear in motion or sever it from its locked position.

Rust are all those thoughts and feelings which keep a person locked in their past, unable to hear the Lord, hear their friends, or even hear their better inner selves. Many do not change because of the work required. The hinge or gear is bonded through its entire surface, not just a single point. Persons undergoing change are often embarrassed or injured by those who do not understand or have compassion for the work of gaining freedom, and often do not see their own rusty hinges or gears. Some people might wonder why their trials are so hard when it might just be the torque needed to remove rust.

This is a powerful image to me as I attempt to make changes in my life. It tells me, “Don’t give up. Take the risk. Use all the resources necessary. Don’t avoid the work and discomfort. Don’t be distressed when it takes longer than you think it should. Partner with others who can use their resources to help break the rust. Take whatever time and effort is required.” Staying rusted to the past is a guaranteed loss. Gaining freedom is worth any effort. Jesus is the author of freedom.

Some words, moments, and people can impact life beyond the ability to understand them or express them. They are formative or life changing. I’ve often thought that high school was the second most formative four year stretch in a persons life. The first four year stretch is from birth to four years old when persons travel from a gurgling blob of humanity to walking, talking, thinking humans, able to interact with the world and people around them. High school transforms a child into the first stages of adult life and accountability. We go from child relationships to imitation and actual adult relationships. We are at the edge of the nest taking the first flights.

High school, for my class, was a place to build foxhole friends, people with which you identified for life. We grew up in the same area, experienced the same cultural events and understanding, the same knowledge base of human discovery, and the struggle for self identity and growth particular to the age. We were a team, formed in the defining forces of our shared time during a same age in a specific location in all our individual diversity and uniqueness. Somehow, that bonding gave us a personal investment in one another’s lives. We belong to each other in a unique way that is different from any other group to which we may belong. These are the people who can ask about what you did with your life and have rights to an answer.

There is a beauty in that kind of belonging that seems to be increasingly missing in our world, as individuals seem to be growing apart and groups don’t form attachments as they once did. We have more tech, more communication, more ways to reach and be reached, and yet less depth in the commitment and connection within relationships and communities. My high school friends were all on the same launch pad, at the same time, jumping into the lives we would live and the people we would become. We saw each other walk across the launching stage at graduation, remembering our four years and wondering what would occur in our dispersal. Now we get together and can see what has happened and who we have become.

Humans truly need deep community relationships. It is something worth giving a lifetime to build or repair. I pray that the pendulum will swing back to deep relationships. We need each other to live a healthy life. Investing in the health and well being of others is always an investment which pays good dividends.

Trauma is a source of ongoing pain. It is an injury so intense at its inception that it lingers in the heart and soul through the fear it caused and the shame it birthed. Trauma is beyond the individual’s ability to avoid, control, or win against. It is a loss, a damage, a defeat that the heart and mind can’t reconcile without outside help because it is too big for the injured person. All people have traumas of some type and some level from small to great, but all trauma leaves its time or event to continue contaminating in the ongoing life of the injured until it is stopped.

The first stage of stopping the trauma’s ongoing work requires humility. Humility can see or acknowledge something is wrong. People without humility assume that they are just doing what they do without realizing or examining whether or not they are compelled in their actions by a fear or shame they do not want to see or accept. Without humility, blame shifts to others, and the individual justifies their actions through emotional reasoning or stubborn acceptance of their behavior. They can not or will not see the injury their trauma is sharing with others.

There are many symptoms to trauma induced reactions and behaviors. Healing can begin once humility opens the window to let the light in. Prayer, going to Jesus directly, is always an appropriate first or ongoing step. God has made many additional resources available to us in America. There are self help groups related to any hurt a person can have. Counselors abound in faith and out. Books have been written to cover so many issues. It is incumbent on each of us to find truth, face truth, and find resources for healing as we need them. God wants us to be a blessing to others, not an injury. He wants us healed from His hand directly to us or through any of the many resources He has made available to us. Seek and choose healing. You will be glad you did, and so will those around you.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if you could lay out all your thoughts, memories, and life experiences on your front lawn to walk through and consider. I imagine it would be much like the experience of moving. Tona and I have been helping others move for the last two weeks.

Moving is like time travel through a museum. All your possessions are artifacts that you can date by year or decade. The fad buys of 2000 that are replaced by the new fad by 2005 and again in another group of years. Families with children can measure time by the toys that they still have, even after they have recycled other toys to friends with kids. Kitchenware, utensils, and appliances speak of the change of diet, cooking ability, and popular cooking fads. One toaster is plain metal. The next is colorful and stylishly rounded. The third has Grogu (Baby Yoda) emblazoned on the side. All three toasters work, and all three are boxed for the move. There are toaster ovens, crock pots, and instant pots. Each item trending in its own time zone and now an ongoing legacy of the family life in time.

There are no end of surprises as all the darkest corners and the least visited bottom-of-the-storage-places are unearthed like an archeologist who finds treasures forgotten or misplaced. The surprises trigger the memories of how you had to have it, used it once, and left to be covered by the next have-to-haves that ended in the same closet. Sorting through the archival treasures is like tripping through the tyrannical appetites that were found to be as temporary and transient as a breeze. You might even be amazed at how far you went out of your way to get that thing that just as suddenly became something of little or no value. You can see yourself, your appetites, your priorities reflected in all the stuff you have accumulated and especially the stuff you accumulated and kept.

People look at us and see our house, our possessions, our actions, our thoughts and words. They can see us more plainly than we can see ourselves at times.To them it may be like seeing all my stuff out on the lawn ready to be packed and trucked. These thoughts increase my prayer life. I want people to see that there is more than just me. The Lord has, is, and will be working on this life I call a home and all its possessions and being. It is not just the archives, but it is the present and the future. God is alive with His changes, moving me forward. I am not alone.