Monday’s Reflection
A . . . PRACTICE that can lay the groundwork for drawing wisdom from our own sufferings is to be present to other people’s suffering. To witness. To see how many are the ways people dealing with suffering. To learn how suffering can elicit creativity or deepen hope or resilience or understanding. Some people recoil from others’ suffering—don’t like to visit hospitals, don’t know what to say, wish they were somewhere else, or could just send flowers. But a willingness to show up, even in our uncertainty about how to behave, may not only be a gift, it may help us learn to enter the places of darkness with confidence and trust, not needing to know how, or to predict outcomes, but to be fully present to whatever the moment calls for.
- Marilyn Chandler McEnryre
Weavings, May, June, July 2011
From “What You Get for the Price,” in Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual LifeMay/June/July 2011. Copyright © 2011 by The Upper Room. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
Do you know of someone who could benefit from your presence as they suffer? Share your reflections.
Today’s Scripture Reading
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