Gentle Reader, I have shared a few thoughts on the emotional connotation of “newness” in one’s life with Sweet Spirit, someone of whom I have lovingly spoken in previous blogs. In particular, we discussed the quandary of (briefly) how change, and especially a new problem, can sadden one; and how such sadness can be more difficult to bear than the nature of the change itself, such as breaking a bone, developing a chronic disease or encountering some reversal of fortune.
People experiencing the quandaries of “new norms” are in the news every day nowadays.
I’m sure, Gentle Reader, you remember Christopher Reeve, the American actor who broke his spine in a fall from his horse. It was all over the news a way back. (Note here, Gentle Reader, how the word “new” becomes “news,” short for newspaper. Journalists certainly recognize how people are captured by the “news,” how we can be irresistibly drawn to the new, how we can be fascinated by the new even if simultaneously repelled.)
To continue, Chris was permanently crippled and confined for 10 years by that fall to a wheelchair before he died in 2004. Bravely, he tried to regain his ability to walk during those same 10 years; but sadly, he is known to have said that every morning of that last 10 years, when he awoke and realized anew each day that he was crippled, he cried hard for 20 minutes. At the end of the 20 minutes, he said he pulled himself together and continued with each new day, his sadness managed, but still there. This pattern became the “new norm” of his life, a life that before the fall from the horse had been radically different and radically more comfortable, to say the very least.
I do not know if Christopher Reeve worked through this reversal of fortune by relying on Jesus and the new future He won for us by His suffering and death on a Roman cross and His resultant triumphant Resurrection to new life. I do not know. I can only hope so. Because, Christians know nothing happens to Christians that is not filtered through fingers of love—God’s love. And they know that even though there will be various and many trials throughout life, Scripture tells us to count them all joy because God promises to be with us in them and will cause them all to work together for good for us—for those who are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28, NKJV).
Christians cherish and devotedly anticipate the fulfillment of these Scriptural promises. They are gifts to which every believer can look forward and for which every Christian can rejoice. Ask the Apostle James or Paul. Both were experts on the subject of joy in Christ even in the midst of need (James 1: 2-4; Philippians 4:12, NKJV). How wonderful it is that God does not despise the needy (Psalm 72: 12-4, NKJV)!
It is a sad quandary that “new norms” can hurt. Sentience can be painful, Gentle Reader, as well as glorious; but thankfully, mastery of sentience, even pain, can be learned in relationship with Jesus, even in a fallen world. Talking with Jesus, counting on Jesus, building discipline, building endurance, receiving an increase in faith from God Himself; from these regular encounters and practices come mastery.
It’s not easy being a sentient human being, Gentle Reader. I’m sure you know that, too. But it is a huge and necessary understanding to acquire that through relationship with God we are blessed and can become blessings to others.
Though suffering, though not liking, even hating the experience that peaks and valleys of sentience can bring; our emotions can be mastered and made gracious, our relationships fruitful.
God’s sentience invested in us is meant to be a blessing, to make us compassionate toward one another in relationship—as God is compassionate with us. And according to Scripture, God’s blessings are very durable in both the life of the here-and-now and the greater life of the there-and-then.
To be continued
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