Winning Words 12/15/11
“Everybody has a problem, is a problem, or has to live with a problem.” (Sam Shoemaker) I like to do crossword puzzles (not those in the Sunday NY Times). My mind is such that I try to figure out things. My first sermon as a pastor was, “Why Must People Suffer?” I am still puzzled at suffering.” I’m not the only one. Just ask someone around you about suffering, and they’ll probably have a story. ;-) Jack

FROM PRJS IN MICHIGAN: If you want to really suffer, work on the Friday and Saturday NY Times' puzzles.... they are a lot tougher than the Sunday one....////FROM JACK: As for problems, I get bored with the easy ones. The hard ones are frustrating. The "tweeners" are the most satisfying. The "problem" is that too many people are satisfied with being satisfied.

FROM SHARIN' SHARON: Thankful for your WW again this morning and being able to reflect on them a few minutes. Henri Nouwen also arrived with his meditation and it occurs to me we by necessity must suffer because we have this freedom to decide yes or no in loving God. If we're not deciding no at a period of time, someone else around us is busy deciding no and so we suffer. It helps me here to think of the joy God has when we freely decide to love Him instead of saying no to Him, the suffering is all worth it finally for the joy which is forever. But then again maybe this is too simplistic--it's only coming to me like this because the two e-mails showed up here practically next to each other.////FROM JACK: I don't think that we realize that life is a continual muliple-choice test. "This or that" is before us all the time. I like the challenge in Joshua 24:15, "Choose this day whom you will serve."

FROM GOOD DEBT JON: "Yes, some are married." from a friend, when I forwarded this to him earlier. ////FROM JACK: At first glance, "live with a problem" could be taken to apply to marriage, but, with further thought, I see that it could apply to those who have health issues, financial difficulties...the list could go on. We take so many things for granted.

FROM RG IN ARIZONA: My troubling question has been with the concept that "we are born into sin". I never quite grasped the concept. I had to rephrase the language to identify that we are born into limitation and incompleteness; that our sensibilities restrict our full comprehension and experience of God (and likely, even ourselves). So, I think there is a link here with the question of suffering. If one cannot possibly experience the full and complete nature of one's own soul; nor the inheritance of that which is afforded each member of the Body of Christ because one exists in the temporality and sensory restrictions of the world and has no option to amend such an existence, suffering is the most natural and unavoidable consequence. We are born into it! ////FROM JACK: From my point of view...We are born into a world where there exists negative reaction to the perfect will of God, and we are influenced by that, just as we are influenced by other circumstances. We are also born with the opportunity for free will. Some suffering is caused by our own doing, or by the nature of the world. And, there there's that suffering which is puzzling and seems to have no reason. Life goes on.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: Right now, my problem is with my computer. It's old and isn't working well or else, the operator has some problems. Not sure which. Suffering can take on many forms some of which we can control and some of which control us. Somedays it is downright hard to get up out of bed. But the hardest of all is watching someone we love suffer. I'm sure there's a reason for it, but it's one of those questions we will only get the answer to when we get to Heaven.////FROM JACK: When we get to Heaven, will be concerned about quizzing God?

FROM MEDD-O-LANE: My mind tells me that God made an opposite of all things and in that way without suffering we would not know all good. Like, there is no thing like cold, it is lack of heat. Suffering is not God made but allows us to understand the bigger picture of faith in what we don't understand.////FROM JACK: That's an interesting way of looking at it. Iris DeMent (you can Google it) sings: "I think I'll just let the mystery be."

FROM CS IN MICHIGAN: I always try to be aware that everyone we meet carries some burden. It helps me keep an attitude of kindness. Buddhism has a lot to say about suffering. I picked up a very nice small book several years ago called "Buddhism Without Beliefs (a contemporary guide to awakening)" By Stephen Batchelor just to understand a little more about eastern thought. I think, of course, it is very compatible with Christianity. It does not claim to be a religion.////FROM JACK: Much religious and philosophical thought has been given to the subject of suffering and being kind to those who carry burdens. There is wheat among the chaff, if you know how to sift.

FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: I must have been a bad boy.////FROM JACK: Some people believe that suffering is the penalty for being bad. It ain't necessarily so.

FROM ILLINOIS LIZ: I so appreciate that you share such thoughts and feelings. Suffering is quite puzzling, for sure...////FROM JACK: It certainly puzzled Job in the Old Testament. One verse that I remember: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." (Job 13:15)