[Tension & Renewal - [XXVII]
I don’t believe in redemptive violence. Violence begets violence *in the long run* every time.
I do, however, know redemptive suffering to be real and meaningful. Good comes from struggle, grace comes from pain, wisdom comes from suffering, love can come from darkness and wounds, generosity from poverty, just to name a few of my own experiences.
Life from death is a framework I see throughout all of creation.
It’s not popular, but love and compassion and strength and faith can all grow from suffering. Actually, they require it. But those virtues aren’t the natural result of suffering. We just as easily can grow toward depression and numbness or angst and rage.
When we try to “deal” with suffering with gimmicky hope (wishful thinking) and cheap love (sentimentality), we drive ourselves toward numbness because our soul is left on the sideline.
When our heart is broken open during suffering—we don’t hold back but instead dive further in—we fall in love with the possibilities of redemption, reconciliation, and resurrection. Only with fearless love in the face of unimaginable suffering do we begin to truly hope.
[h/t Welwood]
