What do we do with pain? Illness, grief, anxiety, fear, disappointment? What do we do with that pain?
Sometimes hard won wisdom comes to us through pain.
Unfortunately, more frequently, we act foolishly and destructively because of pain.
Lashing out or lashing inward.
Poisoning those around us, poisoning ourselves.
All true comedy it is about suffering, finding those moments where we transcend pain.
What do we do with pain? Deny, run away, push it away, forget, ignore, attack, drown it, spread it around? Pursue power, domination, distraction and despair?
Most of the idols that enslave us are the results of inappropriate coping, or in the language of scripture, they are works of folly.
Today we mark the end of the Christian year, Christ the King Sunday, the end not only in terms of finishing the calendar but end in terms of the goal and purpose of time and history.
The end, the goal, the purpose, the fulfillment, the completion of time is Christ the King.
A king with a crown of thorns, suffering on the cross, a dead messiah.
What does God do with pain?
The pain of the world, endured, absorbed in the cross, and transformed into the resurrection.
Christ the King.
What does God do with pain? That is really the Gospel isn’t it? The good news? That God in Christ embraces the pain of the world that we may be free to love, to serve, to praise? Not so much taking it away as transforming it into healing.
What do we do with the pain in our lives?
We make a big deal about Thanksgiving this week, a national holy day and feast. We go to great lengths to get together with others and eat a lot, a lot of guilt and discomfort comes with the mystique and the marketing.
“You will be thankful damn it and you will like it!”
“In my day let me tell you how thankful we were, we really appreciated things, unlike all those people today.”
Lots of inappropriate coping and spreading of pain comes with the holy day.
The thing about Thanksgiving is that it is really about a few families who survived terrible hardship, who were burdened by grief for those who didn’t make it, who took time to defiantly celebrate in the midst of a dangerous and uncertain world. In the midst of pain they gave thanks, in the midst of pain they helped one another, and in the midst of pain they celebrated with enthusiasm and great style.
That is the icon of Thanksgiving that I gaze upon and find hope and strength. Not putting on a good show and pretending things are wonderful. No. It is about giving thanks in the midst of the pain and the fear, bringing some light to the darkness that always looms nearby and to keep doing it until we fall into our grave.
Every day, every moment we are faced with that question, what will I do with this pain and discomfort and fear? Spread the misery? Or celebrate the Great Thanksgiving?