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| Jacob Wrestling the Angel, 1876 by Léon-Joseph-Florentin Bonnat |
It's not always a good idea, though. We can skip too quickly from pain to relief, from struggle to succor. Douglas John Hall has written,
“It is the propensity of religion to avoid, precisely, suffering: to have light without darkness, vision without trust and risk, hope without an ongoing dialog with despair—in short, Easter without Good Friday.”
To continue using the Christian metaphor -- between Good Friday and Easter morning there's a day in which Jesus's body is in the tomb, and his companions were scattered and afraid. On that day no one yet knew (at least not for sure) that there would be a resurrection. More than a few, and maybe even most, must have believed that Jesus's death on the cross was it. The end.
In the Hebrew scriptures there is a story told about Jacob and how he wrestled one night with an angel by the Jabbock River. All night the two struggled. As dawn approached, the angle begged Jacob to let them go, but Jacob refused, saying, "I will not let you go until you bless me."
If we move too quickly from the first snowflake to the first crocus, bypassing the cold hard winter; from the cross to the resurrection, jumping over the time in the tomb; from our problem to its resolution, without spending enough time in the problem; we can lose out on whatever blessing our struggle might contain.
This is not as simple, or simplistic, as the idea that "every cloud has a silver lining." That phrase is often used to dismiss the real pain, or confusion, or fear we're feeling. Don't worry; be happy. Nor is it quite the idea that "everything happens for a reason." It's more like saying, "because things happen, we have the chance to learn something."
A spiritual director may well ask you, "Where is God in the midst of this problem? What is its blessing?" They aren't encouraging you to ignore your current struggle, thinking instead of better things to come. Instead, we're encouraging you to embrace it.
Pax tecum,
RevWik
