To Update: My finger is well on its way to recovery. Had it been a finger on any other hand belonging to anyone else it would have had a stitch or two helping, but my flanges seem to have an overwhelming need for independence so it will just take longer.
I though I would share with you some thoughts I had had while writing a paper for my writing class. The paper is exploring the need for pain in life and how we handle the pain and if we in turn learn from it. While talking in class about one of the articles we read we discussed the following quote, "'I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.' We will all suffer in one way or another, but we need a certain perspective if our suffering is to teach us."
If you think about mourning as it pertains to the death of a loved one, the added act of 'mourning' to our suffering allows us to at some point move on from our suffering. If 'mourning' acts as the means to a new perspective our suffering and it is only through our 'mourning' that we can ever overcome our pain, then my question is, do we 'mourn' regularly? I think we will all quickly admit to suffering regularly, but without any 'mourning' we aren't learning from our pain. The scriptures say that God is with his people in their suffering, and I think that it is through Him that we are able to mourn and gain this new perspective. I'm not sure that I regularly mourn, and deal with my suffering in any way that will promote any sort of learning, and I should, because why on earth would we want to just suffer.
Just something for you to think about on this Tuesday afternoon. Have a good one!
2 comments:
Thank you!!! A lot of what you said has been on my mind recently and it's good to read it rather than just have the thoughts floating through my head. I loved the quote and I do think that we need to mourn in order to grow through our suffering...I needed your posting today, thanks! :)
Interesting. I think it takes a lot of maturity to recognize pain can be teaching tool. Frankly, I'd not thought about it that way. I tend to be a passive, wait-until-the-trial-is-over sort, probably because I constantly head my Mom's motto "This, too, shall pass." Doesn't match up with my Take Action! impulses, but like I said, I'm not as mature as you.
Crying baby. . .thanks for the post.
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