Head-dibs

"What is quite unlooked for is more crushing in its effect, and unexpectedness adds to the weight of a disaster. The fact that it was unforeseen has never failed to intensify a person’s grief. This is a reason for ensuring that nothing ever takes us by surprise. We should project our thoughts ahead of us at every turn and have in mind every possible eventuality instead of only the usual course of events." (Seneca, Letters from a Stoic)

“Whenever you suffer pain, keep in mind that it’s nothing to be ashamed of and that it can’t degrade your guiding intelligence, nor keep it from acting rationally and for the common good. And in most cases you should be helped by the saying of Epicurus, that pain is never unbearable or unending, so you can remember these limits and not add to them in your imagination. Remember too that many common annoyances are pain in disguise, such as sleepiness, fever and loss of appetite. When they start to get you down, tell yourself you are giving in to pain.” (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations")

On two separate occasions, Seneca penned two thoughts that compliment each other. The first is this: “I don’t agree with those who plunge headlong into the middle of the flood and who, accepting a turbulent life, struggle daily in great spirit with difficult circumstances. The wise person will endure that, but won’t choose it—choosing to be at peace, rather than at war.” (MORAL LETTERS, 28.7) And the second:  “Many are harmed by fear itself, and many may have come to their fate while dreading fate.” (Oedipus, 992) One wonders if some people plunge headlong into foolishness because they are driven by fear. Herds of animals have been known to stampede to their own harm to escape bugs. What a small thing a bug is that a beast will risk drowning or plunging over a precipice out of fear. Not too long ago I encountered a person who, for reasons unknown to me, simply cannot abide in peace. There must be strife. To be fair, this person has endured trauma and abuse so happine...

“You cry, 'I’m suffering severe pain!' Are you then relieved from feeling it, if you bear it in an unmanly way?” —Seneca. Moral Letters, 78.17 Physical training (aka "self inflicted pain") opens the door to emotional training--but who cares? Those who consistently seek to better themselves feel some kind of pain and look perhaps quite unglamorous while training, but who cares? We bring pain on ourselves. But who cares? Why complain? What good comes from complaining? There's no relief in complaining.  What changes when we complain? We can whine, cry, yell, scream, holler, break things, be cruel or short with someone--but what changes? We get make ourselves a mess, get hoarse, give ourselves (or someone else) a headache, have to clean up a mess, fix or replace whatever got broke, feel horrible for what we've done, humble ourselves, make apologies . . . beyond that, not much else changes.  Silence is not easy but in silence one not only finds ...

Have you ever thought of suffering and comfort as two elements that work together in your life to produce something good, something fruitful? Notice what Paul writes concerning comfort to the Corinthians church: the comfort your receive is not for you to keep. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Cor 1:3-4) The more God comforts us, the more we can comfort others. Adrian Rogers said “we are more like God when we encourage and more like the devil when we don’t.” There are seven kinds of fruit to share from the harvest of suffering: 1. Suffering makes us seek either God’s face or turn away. Notice the contrast: Ahaz became unfaithful to God in his distress (1 Chron. 28:22) while Manasseh humbled himself before God while in affliction (2 Chron. 33...

( 2 Corinthians 1:4-5 ) Adrian Rogers said that “Discouragement is a darkroom where the negatives of fear and failure develop.” How do we deal with suffering, hardships and not allow the feelings of fear and failure to develop? Bring in the light! This illustration draws it’s meaning from the old method of developing camera film in a blackened room. Any amount of  light destroyed the film negatives and the pictures would not develop--and this is exactly what we want to happen in this case! Destroy the negative! One way I do this is to be mindful that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.   Paul writes, “For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2 Cor 1:5) See, there are different kinds of suffering and there are different kinds of comfort. “First world” problems is not suffering. Most people of the world don’t get to say things like, “I’m tired of all the restaurants near my office” or “My...

More Poetry from the bookshelf

"Māgha Pūjā,  Makha Bucha, or the  Full Moon of Tabaung  . . .  is an important  Buddhist festival  celebrated in  Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos on the full moon day of the third lunar month (this usually falls in February). The third lunar month is known in the Thai language as Makha (Pali: Māgha); Bucha is also a Thai word (Pali: Pūjā), meaning 'to venerate' or 'to honor'. As such, Makha Bucha Day is for the veneration of Buddha and his teachings on the full moon day of the third lunar month." (source: Wikipedia) This is a day Buddhists strive not to sin, to do only good and purify the mind. This worldview is not understood with ease, being a kind of atheism that rejects the belief of a personal God yet is deeply concerned with maintaining purity with a non-personal Universe. Simply put (as much as one is able), the founder of Buddhism observed a world of suffering and evil under the watch-care of a personal God and he ...

Ed Welch writes, "It feels so right – so spiritual – to live with regrets . It means you feel bad for the wrong things you have done or think you have done, and that sounds like a good thing. If you forget those wrongs, you are acting like they were no big deal."  (ht: Tim Challies) Dr. Walt Kaiser comments on Egypt and Isaiah 19 . Dr. William Larkin asks, " What does the New Testament Have to Do With Missions ?" This is one way to hear " the music of the spheres !" Knockin' on Heaven's Door .  "Through our Christian lives, we will pass through valleys and low points.  It's not a matter of if , but when ."  

How Can There Be Both Mercy and A Hell? The distinction between a game and a puzzle is that while a game produces winners and losers, puzzles are centered on a solution. C.S. Lewis debates the doctrine of universalism (“all will be saved”) along the same lines of this distinction: is personal eschatology to be regarded as a puzzle or a game? If a game, then why is the winner detestable? If a puzzle, then why the doctrine at all? Which is more tolerable: dismiss the doctrine of hell because it is disagreeable; or, allow the wicked person to enter heaven against his will and remain as he is? Does God send people to hell, or is it their sin? This is the difference between world religions and biblical doctrine. Hell is inflicted because men prefer darkness to light. Hell is not a sentence, but a fact of being. Punishment is just because righteousness, not vindictiveness, stands behind it. A man satisfied with evil will not be satisfied with righteousness. “Pain plants the flag o...

[continuing my interaction with " The Problem of Pain ," by C.S. Lewis] Human Pain Chapters 6 and 7 of C.S. Lewis’ book concentrate on the topic of “Human Pain,” which Lewis divides into two categories: “A. A particular kind of sensation, probably conveyed by specialized nerve fibers, and recognizable [sic] by the patient as that kind of sensation whether he dislikes it nor not . . . B. Any experience whether physical or mental, which the patient dislikes.” Immediately, Lewis expounds the pain of human autonomy; that is, the rejection of all that intended good that accompanies submission to God. One may choose the pain of self-surrender out of love for God and gain all the blessings that come with a restored relationship; or, one may instead choose suffer the pain of evil bound up in rebellion against Him. Pain is an illusion-breaker, snapping us out of the delusion that all is well and that all the resources of the world are ours for the taking. We are not self-suffic...

[continuing my interaction with " The Problem of Pain ," by C.S. Lewis] How Can My Breath Stink If I Have No Nose? C. S. Lewis asks, “why do men need so much alteration?” If the argument is that man has become bad through abused free will, then he must be able to use free will to become good. This means that the preaching of the good news (repentance by faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ) is not good news at all. “Christianity now has to preach the diagnosis—in itself very bad news—before it can win a hearing for the cure.” Lewis present two principle causes for this faulty assumtion: first, doctrine has been skewed by focusing more on virtue and less on vice, more on kindness and less on wrath. Second, sin and shame have been redefined, which leads one to wonder: was Jesus death a mistake if all it took to fix man was a shift in focus and some simple redefinitions? Lewis likens this to the abolition of the nose, “that the smell of hay or roses or the se...

[continuing my interaction with " The Problem of Pain ," by C.S. Lewis] Life sans Pain Is Lifeless: Chapter 2, “Divine Omnipotence” is thoughtful consideration of the power of God and what man expects of Him. For example, there today is heard the so-called objection to God through the question, “Can God make a rock so big He cannot lift it?” The question demands to know if God exists based on a demonstration of power, which only proves the question is not a good question. Lewis answers: “[M]eaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning because we prefix to them the two other words, ‘God can.’ It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities . . . not because His power meets an obstacle but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.” If power were proof of existence, then what would be the outcome if you were challenged to arm-wrestle yourself? Impossibilities are s...

[This is will not be a book review per se, but more of a lengthy interaction and summation, spread out over a number of posts--bite-size and eaily digestable portions of this challenging book.] Lewis explains the purpose of his book, The Problem of Pain , as being a solution to “the intellectual problem raised by suffering.” Lewis expresses his personal feeling in the preface that he has nothing to offer his readers “except my conviction that when pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.” This is perhaps the best summary of the book, humbly presenting both problem and solution with such little complexity. Lewis dedicates the introductory matter of the first chapter to building the framework concerning the rationale of religion (“awe,” generally speaking) through four elements: existence of Presence (the “numenous”) which through the fear of uncer...

I was out minding my own business on day when I noticed a man who seemed to be quite agitated about something, just downright disturbed. This bothere me, seeing someone being bothered, so I offered assistance. He ignored me. I offered again and seemed to be ready to accept some kind of help, but I learned very quickly that he was intent on making a big deal about his situation and wanted no help at all. How frustrating to meet people who don't want help--they just want to be left alone, happy or otherwise. I think it comes down to this: to accept comfort, consolation, encouragment, even help, one must become vulnerable. For many this means to be weak in an age we are told to be strong, "suck it up," bear the pain, take Ibuprofen and get over it. The Christian has good reason to suffer affliction: the glory of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:3-7). 1) We suffer so we can comfort others. Certainly Paul is speaking of the affliction that comes with preaching ...

Samuel Rutherford (1600? - 1661), a member of the council that wrote the Westminster Confession, was imprisoned because of his beliefs. While in prison, he wrote this soul-strengthening letter expressing the joy that sustained him through his trials: “If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose. And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! For if you should see a man shut up in a closed room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.”

The richest chords require some black keys.

When the cowboy applied for health insurance, the agent asked his routine questions about previous accidents--had he had any? The cowboy replied, "No, sir. Last year I was bitten by a rattlesnake, and a horse kicked me in the ribs. That laid me up for a while." The agent said, "Weren't those accidents?" "Nope," replied the cowboy. "They did it on purpose." The cowboy knew, perhaps, that where God is in control, there are no such thing as "accidents."