Taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Wait a minute. . . he did that? I am to do that?
That Serenity Prayer line will rattle a person’s status quo underpinnings.
To take on life as it really is we must deal with resistance toward and engagement with the stink of the journey.
In what universe do you find a lame man with a limp openly bearing witness to his “beautiful feet on the mountains bearing good news”*? Can beauty flower and flourish in the middle of contrary forms? Are not all bad things. . . well. . . bad?
The religious tradition I was fostered in generally prescribed an unwritten list of responses to adversity whenever it came calling. Resist – Rebuke – Refuse.
Pain does not bring good to a person’s life. Resist it.
Adversity is not a pathway to human betterment. Rebuke it.
God is not one to bring his children into places of suffering. Refuse it.
In some communities, too, a notion prevails that anything of a non-religious nature is to be avoided – certainly not enjoyed. In my old age I’m drawn to jazz music, gentle instrumentals. Taking in cool smooth blends of light piano, an old upright bass and soft guitar or sax brings a kind of therapeutic effect. I digress.
Jesus took the world as he found it. He resisted straightening out all the bad stuff during his years walking the earth. He did not tackle in a quick moment all the long string of horrors, did not rid the world of them. Not then and not now. The unspeakable pain brought on from evil did not cease upon his entry to the world. He came to the world as it was and lived in it, even ministered in it – where it was, the way he found it – not the way he would have wished it to be.
It seems that God (being all-knowing and wise) opts to allow many of man’s choices – destructive as they often are – to play out unblocked on history’s stage. For now, anyway. If righteous Jesus can exercise self-control enough to hold off righting the world’s wrongs by a sweep of his hand, is he not able to supply his disciples grace and patience to live and serve in the midst of the same?
The fact that we are not charged with remedying the world of all its ills comes as a freeing thing to the soul. While we are to steward the roles we are assigned in bringing about change, we understand that straightening the dysfunctions of our own selves calls for plenty attention all its own.
©2023 Jerry Lout *Isaiah 52:7
Important points, Jerry. This truth about pain also serves to discredit the old ‘religious’ standard that bad things happening prove we have sinned and God is unhappy with us. Forgetting how grace carried even Jesus through the bad stuff. Thanks for another great post !
For sure. Discrediting such myths with sound truth is an exercise reaching at least as far back as our ancient friend Job of the land of Uz. Thank you, RJ, and for bringing to fresh focus a needed perspective.