thesoulpurposedotorg

On this Good Friday I have been contemplating the suffering of Jesus the Christ that we for some obscure reason call Good Friday. I bet he didn’t call it that. I know he didn’t welcome suffering. I know he felt abandoned in the midst of it. He cried out, perhaps as much from the experience of betrayal as from the agony of crucifixion. So I wonder where we get the idea that being stoic is Christ-like. I’m thinking of Jesus in the Garden asking God to find some other way for “Thy Will Be Done”. He sweat blood not to mention tears of agony just knowing what he faced.

So I hereby proclaim that it is not Christ-like to enjoy suffering! Or even to just shut up about it. Especially in prayer. Or in church. I’m thinking it’s okay to howl at the moon or the sun at the break of day when the need arises. And that God howls right along beside us.

Of course, for practical reasons, it is not helpful to complain all the time or to look for things to be wrong so we can complain, or howl. In fact, laughter is much more useful than screams. And bitterness has no use at all even when thoroughly deserved.

This is what I have found to be helpful when true suffering has come my way. First, to be honest about what is going on (for me this only comes after a lovely blanket of denial turns out to be a delusion). Then to just be with God in it whether that involves the prayer of talking out loud to The Divine (preferably when no one else is around lest more suffering come your way) or putting on soothing music (I like Daniel Kobiaka’s Timeless Motiion) or going for a walk with loud, complaining music singing in my ears through the iPod. And then to truly, truly remember that there is nothing that happens to us that isn’t designed to bring us closer to God-wakefulness. This has taken me decades to understand but oh the sweet release when I know this in my bones. Everything is designed to birth the Divine, or perhaps merely to resurrect what is already there.