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wings
For leaders who face
disappointment & suffering
I have chosen Bishop Rueben Job's "A Guide to Prayer For All Who Seek God" for my daily devotions. The reading for Sunday, Feb. 11, is entitled, "When All Systems Fail." The devotion uses this quotation from Michael Casey's book, "Toward God," which really caught my attention: In the culture of the industrialized Western world, it is difficult to accept suffering. We are led to expect that it should not occur.
When we are led to believe that disappointment or suffering should not happen to "me", then we are ill-equipped to handle it when it comes. Conversely, when we believe we're entitled to happiness, success, and prosperity, we are ungrateful when we receive those blessings.
These expectations are all too pervasive in our culture and even in our church. I believe this sense of entitlement has contributed to the negativity existing in our churches today. We're all looking for someone to "scratch our itch," and then we're disappointed when suffering comes our way.
In an article entitled "Leadership in an Attentive Congregation," Gary Peluso-Verdend writes: A strengthened ability to enter into suffering requires that we know the ground of our hope and that we know it deeply, in our bones. Thus, the capacity to enter suffering with hope means that our practices of theology, worship, prayer, and the like must penetrate into the crevices of our minds and the joints of our spirits. ["Alban Weekly," 5/15/06] Peluso-Verdend sees the challenge as a call to practice introspection around our theology, worship, and prayer life. Our theology must inform us that suffering, disappointment, and despair do not have the last word. We must worship God as the God of all comfort and the Lord of victory. We must keep our communication lines with Jesus wide open and continue to have talks with him as our guide, even in rough times. We must avoid becoming negative, cynical, and defeated as we face the disappointments and suffering that are just as much a part of life as the celebrations, victories, and getting what you want.
This is so difficult, because many of us want to look outside ourselves for the source of discomfort, failures, problems, suffering, and disappointment. Yet, I believe that it is especially incumbent upon leaders to practice this kind of introspection. During suffering and disappointment, you should ask yourself, "How did I get to this point? What action or inaction of my own has brought me to this point?"
You ask these questions not because you're looking for someone else to blame, but because you are the only person you can realistically hope to change. Do you really want to move forward, or do you want to remove blame from yourself for your own failures?
I may not always answer this question appropriately, but I believe that Jesus helps us in his farewell address to the disciples recorded in John 14-17. I beg our church leaders to read those chapters.
I leave you with John 16:1. The New Revised Standard version says it this way: I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling.
Eugene Peterson in "The Message" says it this way: I've told you these things to prepare you for rough times ahead.
Again, hear these words from Gary Peluso-Verdend: A strengthened ability to enter into suffering requires that we know the ground of our hope and that we know it deeply, in our bones.
Do you know the ground of hope deeply, and in your bones?
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Bishop James Swanson
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