- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
The following post on By Common Consent is deeply profound – and it encapsulates beautifully something I believe deeply but have a hard time articulating: We need to learn to appreciate and “bear” each other’s joy charitably every bit as much as we bear each other’s sorrow compassionately.It really is a stunning post, and I think it should be required reading for EVERYONE who is struggling with a faith crisis of some kind.
“I Pray You…Bear My Joy Awhile”( http://bycommonconsent.com/2011/09/29/i-pray-you-bear-my-joy-awhile/ A few quotes (but please read the entire thing over on BCC and comment there, as well, if you feel so inclined):
Quote:As it happened, I’d been having a particularly hard time in the weeks before that lesson, feeling sorry for my sad, single self, and mourning deeply for the idyll I’d planned, the sweet, peaceful childhood I had intended for my children, now irretrievably blighted.
Quote:If the fact of someone’s pain requires silence about our own joy, the bearing of one another’s burdens becomes grim duty indeed – those burdens, it seems to me, can be borne better as they are lightened by shared happiness.
Quote:We covenant, simply, to respond sympathetically, that is, to feel with our sisters and brothers, to love them as ourselves. Because they are our selves. And Christ’s.
Quote:If we begin to understand that our most careful efforts at not giving any offense will fail, we can stop trying for pale, polite, bloodless niceness and risk the deep connection that is the beginning of real charity. When I remember that the ragged, chewed thread of my fate is part of the same thick, golden cord as your beautifully spinning thread – when I know and feel that the fact of my sisters’ and brothers’ happy eternal marriages is a joy that belongs to me as it does to them simply because it increases the amount of light and goodness in the world, when I learn that it is my duty and privilege to rejoice with them, even as it is theirs to mourn with me – then, and only then, it seems to me, can I start to receive the gift of charity that makes it possible for all of us to speak freely and love fully in our congregations.
For me this means not taking things as arrogance or bragging when someone shares a success they have had recently — even when I may have a deficit in that department. Some people do it consistently, however, in which case I have to resort to mental discipline to stop feeling inferior to the person. But for the average person sharing a success — learning to stop, reboot, and then take joy in their success, even if it you crave it and can’t have it — is a Christlike attribute. Thanks for posting this, Ray. I don’t get over to BCC as much as I used to and I would’ve missed this wonderful piece. I saw this post today while I was looking through the archives and am bumping it up, in case anyone who is relatively new hasn’t seen it. I like it very much. However,
As someone who is single too, I find it sad that we singles are made to feel less than because we are single. But we can’t not be happy for those who do have a spouse.
That said I am more a
Quote:We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edge of print. It gave us more freedom.
girl when it comes to my being single. I like it. Maybe I’ve been single to long. Maybe I’ve dated too many off the wall men. Maybe every time I go through the temple I giggle to myself about the wives obeying the husbands bit…and think loop hole. (yes I think loop hole). But being on the edges does give more freedom, regardless of what some say. I still am happy about those who are in the papers, good on them for making the papers…but I don’t need them to feel sorry for me because I’m on the edge of the print. It’s wildly exciting out here.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.