Dearest CMMC Friends,
How I miss you! I wanted to check in and let you know that although I have not been to the hospital to serve in five weeks, I am not over here at home in terrible shape. I am in a state of recovery! At the moment, I still have an intermittent cough and some episodes of fatigue. Both of which keep me home for obvious reasons.
I probably will not be back this Wednesday but am looking to next Wednesday as a potential time to return. But I will not hurry, not push things before their time, and accept what comes. As always, I have wonderful colleagues willing to help, me so if you, or a patient, need a chaplain, feel free to call me, I will get someone there for you!
So, let me catch you up on what has been on my mind, and at least we can have something of a written chapel service here.
Let’s start with some music! Click the arrow below to listen.
What I have been thinking about lately is love and its role in suffering. Hence Marcy Baruch's beautiful song about the strength of love!
A great deal of thought goes into thinking about why we suffer. It is a question that theologians, great thinkers, philosophers, and just about anyone who has suffered a loss of any kind have pondered over all of time and time and again.
While I appreciate the helpfulness of a good personal inventory as much as the next guy, these days I often find myself wondering if it’s a good use of time to get too deep into the weeds when it comes to our suffering. Because some say suffering is inevitable at least for some brief time in our lives.
Instead, what if we were to look at those times when we, or those we love, suffer as time for the light of love to shine, and discern how we express as love in those circumstances?
This does not require much of us. We need not actually take on some sort of huge project to activate love. Because if we really think about it, we discover we are already greatly loved.
For those of us who still need a project, I offer this scripture from 1 Corinthians 13, 4-8:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
I invite you to turn this scripture on it’s head a bit. We usually take this scripture and apply it to how we are expressing loving others. What if we were to interpret it as explressing love to ourselves?
Am I patient with myself? Am I kind to myself?
Do I keep a record of my wrongs? There is no problem with a personal inventory and making amends if I need to, but do I hang on to that list and beat myself up over it – perhaps repeatedly? I highly recommend the loving thing to do. That is, to stop that!
Do I protect and trust myself? And so on and so on.
Because there are probably millions of theories as to why we suffer, but there is only one answer; and the answer is always love.
Know that I love and miss you and cannot wait to see you all again.
I thank you for reading. Be blessed this day.
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