gospel of the struggle

Sometimes we are told to embrace the pain.  To embrace the struggle.  To embrace the trial.  But why should we?  It doesn’t resonate. 

It doesn’t resonate… at first. 

As Pete Rollins shares, “The pleasure of life, engagement in life is actually in the struggle and the problem with our current worldview is that we think the satisfaction of life comes with getting the object of our lives and getting rid of the struggle.”

Ok Pete, I’m listening. 

I think it is true that people often misrecognize the joy of pain (note: I do not speak of any kind of pain that has been caused through abuse, etc).  The joy of the struggle.  The joy of the trial.  But what is remembered and relished isn’t necessarily the outcome but the hard work.  But it’s hard to recognize in the middle of that work that you are actually enjoying putting your all into something.

The sacred isn’t found in an object or an outcome but in the depth of life and living itself.

As Pete goes on to share, “People think scientists are addicted to answers.  No, they’re addicted to not having answers.  The joy of science is the ongoing discovery.  The worst thing for scientists would be if they discovered a theory that explained it all.”

I’m not going to be silly and tell you to take a few minutes and embrace your trial, your struggle, and your pain.  Because I don’t know what that is.

But I can tell you that the struggle itself is what we want.  The struggle to make things better.  The struggle to find ourselves on the other side of forgiveness, on the other side of healing, on the other side of hope.  The struggle isn’t something to be avoided but the very thing to bring us to the other side.

And what will we tell our children about?

Likely not about the other side but what it took to get there.