The Why Of Life

Through out my life, especially during my years of active ministry, I have come face to face with my own and others pain.  

I  have seen people struggle with their weakness.  

I have listened to their anger, gratefulness and their wonders about the ‘why’ of life.

I have personally experience, and walk with others who have experienced, the multitude of frustrations and complicated road blocks of life.

Through it all there remains the one unanswerable question:  Why?

Why me, what did I do?

       Why did this happen?

      Why do I have to go through this?

     Why doesn’t God do something about it?

One evening I visited a woman, in the hospital, who had just been informed the her abdomen was full of cancer.  As I drove to the hospital I prayed for God to give me words.  

When I entered her room all I could say was “Oh Marge I am so, so sorry.” She looked straight at me and said in a wise and calm voice:  “Why not me?”

“Why not me?”  

My memories of the rest of the conversation has left my mind.  What I remember is her amazing faith and calm resolve.

The truth of life is that there are hard time and unfair things that occur.  

I often compare our human condition with the cycles of nature -- the beauty of Fall, the dead cold of winter, the rain and new life of Spring and the warmth of summer. I think of weather that creates peacefulness in our soul; as well as destruction and pain.

No matter how much we want life to be smooth and easy; it is not.

And, and, it is no ones fault.

That is just the truth.

With all of that said.  This morning I read an extraordinary explanation of this quandary of human truth.  

I quote from Cynthia Bourgeault’s book Wisdom Jesus pages 

“Yes, this is a very heavy, frustrating, difficult, density that we come into by taking birth in the human realm. Because of the binary, finite nature of both the physical world itself, and the egoic operating system we use to navigate it, it seems as though we’re always bumping into sharp edges..” p. 98

“Could it be that this earthly realm, not in spite of but  because of its very density and jagged edges, offers precisely the conditions for the expression of certain aspects of divine love that could become real in no other way?  This world does indeed show forth what love is like in a particularly intense and costly way.  But when we look at this process more deeply, we see that those sharp edges we experience as constriction at the same time call forth some of the most exquisite dimensions of love, which require the conditions of finitude in order to make sense — qualities such as steadfastness, tenderness, commitment, forbearance, fidelity, and forgiveness.  These mature and subtle flavors of love have no real context in the realm where there are no edges and boundaries, where all just flows.  But when you run up against the hard edges and have to stand true to love anyway, what emerges is a most precious taste of pure love divine.  God has spoken his most intimate name.” (p 99-100)

Profoundly thought provoking.