I have discovered in over 40 years of pastoral conversations that those (Christians) who have a problem/pain which won’t go away cope – or even triumph – with one or more of these five strategies:

1. They have worked hard on their ‘Desire’ for a strong faith/hope/love relationship with God. All the saints follow this course. Saints are people who live lives of gratitude and wonder, patience and worship. Gratitude because they have no expectations, and so are never disappointed. Wonder in that their temporary pain is not worth comparing to the glory which shall be theirs (as Paul puts it in Romans 8: 18-25). Worship was Job’s reaction – even when he got no answers for his suffering. But note that saints are not (yet) perfect; they’re simply honest with God and others about where they are on their painful journey.

2. They have lost themselves in a Grand Cause which liberates others from some sort of pain…

3. They ‘count their blessings’: if, for example, one part of their body isn’t functioning well, they remember that 100,000 other parts are running smoothly…

4. They ‘compare their lot with the less fortunate’. This is not done from a position of hypocritical arrogance (like the stance of the Pharisee in the Temple); nor to inhabit the territory of denial; but they realize that in pain we are born, in pain we mostly live, and mostly die, and that the ‘human condition’ is one of trouble and pain… And that others are denied the medical help and social support they might have…

5. They live a day at a time, or enjoy ‘sacrament of the present moment.’

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.org.au/index.htm (Now 10,600+ articles)

The difference between a prejudice and a conviction is that you can explain a conviction without getting mad