on suffering

Finally went to my Bible study tonight, first time in a long while due to just about everything in my life happening on Thursday nights lately. It's kinda hit and miss with this group; some nights I feel like I get something and others leave me wondering if I learned anything or grew any at all. The people are cool but the theology just isn't there. Anyway I'm just not used to it yet I guess. But this one was very good...talked mostly about suffering, basic stuff and some good discussions. Been thinking a lot about such things lately (mostly self-centered admittedly), in large part as a result of lots of looking at my own past.

One thing that seems to stick in my mind a lot is how my suffering can allow me to help others. Not those I know, but those I might hang out with for only a short time or even random strangers I may never see again. I have always found it easy to let down my guard a bit when I'm not around people I know. For me that usually means going about my business without paying attention to anyone around me, or being in such a hurry that I wish everyone and everything would just disappear so I wouldn't be so inconvenienced as to have to deal with the little things. Basically, just tune everything else out until I have to see someone I know again.

But one thing suffering does is force us to come to grips with the fact that we desperately need others in our lives. Not just good friends but those who can just lift us up here and there. Perhaps God lets us go through crises in our life so that for the brief stretch of time we're around somebody we'll understand a bit more about them and would be able to actually have an impact on them, rather than being just another acquaintance they might or might not remember. Oftentimes a passing moment to one person is a critical point to another. No matter how much I can recall from over the years, it's those small things that really stay with me. There are people out there who likely don't know who I am today, but a few words they said to me or something small they did for me affected me greatly. So it only makes sense that my actions would do, and are doing, the same for others.

Something to think about the next time we get in that shut-down mode. I'd like to write more on this but my brain just isn't working with me this evening. But I think about it often so maybe there will be a sequel of sorts.