Read the full issue of this week’s newsletter here.

In this week’s Liberal, Rev. Jen Crow writes:

The images feel incongruent this week. The glitzy gold of the Olympics and the stories of whole families and communities who have come together to support the passion and achievement of singular athletes that represent us all – and then a fade in or out and a different picture appears – a child, murdered at school or in an attack in Syria – and the same story, the teachers, families, friends, coaches, communities of faith who came together to raise that child and now mourn that child, who are coming together now for the good of the whole, sharing their stories full of love and loss, that we might know their pain and be inspired to make the changes that have been needed for so long.

We all know something of suffering. Several years ago, a mentor introduced me to C.S. Lewis’ writings on pain and suffering. Lewis asserts that while pain and suffering are inevitable in human living, pain is not inherently good and does not necessarily lead to the good. For Lewis, there are at least two kinds of suffering: useless suffering and useful suffering. Useless suffering is the suffering that leads to nothing but more suffering. It can include all kinds of feelings such as shame, regret, worry, and guilt that does not lead to changed behavior. Useful suffering, on the other hand, is the suffering that leads to transformation for the individual and possibly for the community. I’ve read recently about the newer concept of post-traumatic growth. Post-traumatic growth is positive psychological change experienced as a result of adversity and other challenges in order to rise to a higher level of functioning. I think that C.S. Lewis’ spiritual understanding of useful suffering may have a lot in common with this newer psychologically-based concept of post-traumatic growth.

The pain present in our community is great right now. We know suffering that comes from submission to money as a higher god than human life, to power as a greater good. We know suffering that comes from the common experiences of loss that can break our hearts. And this suffering will continue to show up – sometimes seemingly in the same breath as joy.

This week, as the incongruent images move across my news feed, I am seeing something more than useless suffering and hedonistic joy. I am seeing children and families and whole communities rising up in service to each other, refusing to be silent. I am seeing suffering being transformed into solutions that reach across party lines and into people’s hearts. If the loss of the 17 students in Parkland, Florida and the loss of so many lives to needless violence in our communities and in our world is to turn from useless suffering to useful suffering, we have a long road ahead. May we be people of the long haul, trusting our deep-seated faith in the power of love, living into our commitment to nurture and protect the light in each human heart that we might do the spiritual work of alchemy in human living, turning suffering into transformation for us and for our world.

In gratitude,

Rev. Jen