One reason why people are uncomfortable with tears and the sight of suffering is that it is a blasphemous assault on their precariously maintained American spirituality of the pursuit of happiness. They want to avoid evidence that things are not right with the world as it is -- with Jesus, without love, without faith...It is a lot easier to keep the American faith if they don't have to look into the face of suffering....
So learning the language of lament is not only necessary to restore Christian dignity to suffering and repentance and death; it is necessary to provide a Christian witness to a world that has no language for and is therefore oblivious to the glories of wilderness and the cross.
-- Eugene Peterson
Makenzie's friend, Rylei, shared this with us after church last week...where we talking about the role of suffering in our lives.
