A January Adventure

Last weekend, two dear friends and I, left snowy, familiar Atlanta behind to go on a January adventure. We actually went to the "January Adventure" on St. Simon Island, GA...a popular weekend lecture series. The speakers this year were Walter Bruggemann, a professor emeritus at Columbia & author of 50+ books, and Barbara Brown Taylor, an episcopal priest & adjunct professor at Columbia. The exact theme for the weekend escapes me at the moment, mostly because it was really long, but it was all about holiness, spiritual practice, and the book of Jeremiah. Bruggemann covered the broad, big pictures themes and nuances of the prophet Jeremiah while BBT (as she's fondly known by us students) covered the tangible daily spiritual practices that flow naturally from Jeremiah's writing & prophesy. The entire weekend was amazing. Two incredibly brilliant, funny, and eloquent speakers who pull the hearers into the text, breathing new life into familiar words, all the while sparking curiosity, challenge, and intrigue.

One particular segment of BBT's hit home for me in innumerable ways. She spoke of accepting pain as a spiritual practice. She spoke of all kinds of pain so that each person in the room could identify with her analysis. But for quite awhile she spoke of chronic pain. The kind of pain I know too well. And she said all the right things about it.

• Pain can rarely be fixed or cured, but it must always be acknowledged. All a person in pain needs is for someone to notice, someone to point to the pain and say "I see it." Even when the pain keeps coming back, the person just needs someone to notice that it's still there and it still sucks. Yes.
• A life of pain makes a person selfish by nature. Pain demands attention that leads to self-absorption. Yes.
• A person in pain needs something or someone to direct their attention elsewhere. Not to minimize or diminish the pain, but to accept it and move forward. Yes.
• A person in pain can endlessly question why. Why me? What have I done. A person in pain often feels guilt or shame. Yes.
• That same person, if and when they can accept their pain does not ask why, but what now? Yes.
• Pain makes theologians of us all. Yes.

BBT's musings on pain brought me to steady tears. Tears of relief and gratitude for someone who gets it. Tears of longing to have the people in my life who will point to my pain and say "I see it." Tears of joy that I less frequently ask why and more often ask, what now? Tears of thanksgiving for the family & friends who have stuck by me through days, months, years of pain. Tears of sorrow for the friends who have left.

Pay attention with reverence. Be in community with each other. Accept pain with humility. Say blessings with gratitude. A January adventure does so much good for the soul. Thanks be to God.