Run straight at God

Have you allowed suffering to distance you from God? It happens. Suffering causes us to question. Answers are not always forthcoming. Over time, we just lose faith. Over time, a gap begins to grow.

What if we did the opposite instead? What if we picked up our suffering (and that of others) and ran straight at God with it? What if we committed ourselves for however long it took to find God right in the middle of it?

Every time I have done this, I have found myself wholly upended, humbled, and transformed. I highly recommend it.

Suffering, it seems to me, is fertile ground for us to see God in ways less challenging times just don’t permit us to see. We can run right into Him! Suffering peels back layers that must otherwise get in the way. It removes our facades, brings our issues right out into the open, and removes the filter from our thoughts and mouths. In other words, suffering lays us bare before God.

So, then, what must happen next?

God, being Light, enlightens all that is dark. Suddenly, we begin to see. We see in a way we never did before. We learn. We understand. We grow. We see ourselves anew. We see others differently. We are, very literally, transformed. And there’s no going back really. Once we’ve seen, once we’ve run up against the heft of Him, life just isn’t the same.

Richard Rohr teaches there are two forces strong enough to push us like this into the presence of God: love and suffering. I can confirm this teaching. If suffering must come our way, and it does and will, may we pick it up and run straight to God with it!

Reflection

In what ways have you grown from suffering?

Prayer

Dear God, someone must have thought an all-powerful God should keep all suffering from us. This is clearly not truth. Help me to peel this thinking away. May I not allow suffering to create any distance between us. May I bring my suffering to you and ask to find you in it. Teach me, Lord, how to see you, how to hear you above, below, and through suffering. Amen.