Into the Pain…

For those of us in the Christian tradition, this Easter season can teach some deep lessons. If we take the time to look beyond the colorful flowers of Spring and the joy that can be celebrated on Easter morning, this is a season of pain. This is a time of confusion and frustration, with an unforeseen departure in the in narrative. Jesus was celebrated by his friends and followers for three years. He lived a life of hope, of healing. His days were spent reaching out in love. Then events took a tragic turn. He died.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been sitting with people and heard stories of pain, uncertainty, grief, frustration, confusion and deep sadness. The plea is for relief, for understanding. The tears are real. Where is God? Why am I here?

I have no words to heal, only the listening. The listening, while sitting together with the Holy Spirit, with God’s love surrounding us, among us. There are no shortcuts through the pain. Each of us must enter into the pain and ask “What can I learn here?” The depth of love? Letting go of expectations? Finding the bigger picture?

I found these words of Jean Springer:

“As each of us stands in relationship to grief or pain or uncertainty, we can be so caught in the experience that it becomes the lens through which we see life itself. It seems this was the experience of Mary at the tomb of Jesus. There was nothing more than the overwhelming sense of loss. Then she heard her own name. It called her out of herself and opened her to possibilities that she could not have imagined.”

Moving through pain and grief, rather than avoiding it, can bring us to new, unimagined possibilities.