Side by side
A few years ago, best-selling author Rick Warren, who led the prayer at President Obama’s inauguration, gave an interview. He was experiencing the most successful period of his life. His book *Life with a Vision* became a global success, helping thousands of people to gain a new perspective. At the same time, his wife was battling cancer.
He said, in essence, that he had always thought that life would have its ups and downs. But now he realised that these often go hand in hand. Sometimes something truly wonderful and inspiring lies right alongside something painful and frustrating.
I think that’s a very apt description, and I experience it in much the same way. On the one hand, there are inspiring developments; on the other, there is pain. They lie close together. The trick is to let them coexist. To cope with the pain whilst at the same time taking pleasure in the beauty.
[We’d love to hear your thoughts on this post, as well as on all the others.]
That’s exactly what I’ve been going through for nearly eight months. But to be honest, I wouldn’t mind a spell where everything was just great! :-)
I can certainly understand that.
Hello Kerstin,
Your comment reminded me of this poem by Hans-Dieter Eckstein:
Profit or loss?
So what does it mean,
to believe in Christ,
Joy or sadness,
Strength or weakness,
Profit or loss,
Happiness or suffering,
Peace or war?
Both – and the first one right in the middle of the second.
Isn’t that God’s brilliant plan:
Joy in the midst of sorrow – one cannot exist without the other, but God gives meaning to everything!
Hello Ms Hack,
Your blog is truly very enriching. I came across it in February and pop in about once a week. I found your suggestion to ‘fast from the computer’ during Lent particularly inspiring. It was a very good idea for me at the time, too, and I’m trying to keep it up, albeit on a smaller scale.
I can only agree with the post „Side by Side“. For the past 1.5 years, I have been experiencing, one after the other, the deepest lows of my life and yet, at the same time, the most profound spiritual experiences and moments of pure joy in life. Following a serious bout of cancer involving surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, I am trying to find my way back to life. As a result of the illness, my soul must also come to terms with childlessness and a marital crisis. I am now 36 and wrestle with God every day for my survival – and yet I experience so many wonderful moments, real adrenaline rushes, in a much shorter space of time than before.
Tomorrow I have to go back to Berlin to the Virchow Clinic for a follow-up appointment. And on Thursday, I’m going to the funeral of a former professional mentor. That, too, raises an existential question for God: Is it all just a matter of chance? Why am I allowed to live? Why did she have to go? From a purely human perspective, it feels as though life is, after all, just a big lottery drum with a few winners and lots of blanks…….
And yet I’ve already had so many lovely experiences today!
And what’s more, it’s finally sunny and warm again. How lovely!
Thank you very much, dear stranger (given your mention of not having children, I assume you are a woman). Thank you for your very personal comment. No, you can’t explain things. You just have to trust. And learn what there is to learn. I recently had – whilst I was at a dance class – quite a vivid inner vision. I saw myself sitting at a picnic table in heaven with a friend – someone I’d often talked to about the painful, incomprehensible and unsettling phases of life – and a few other people. We saw just how good Jesus was. Deeply good. And how, through all the hardships, he meant well by us.
Suddenly we began to laugh – at our clumsy attempts here on earth to explain life, the incomprehensible, the painful. We laughed until tears came to our eyes. Among the tears that Jesus wiped from our eyes were also the tears of laughter.