Buechner, Miller: Faith
“There was no one on the faculty who left so powerful and lasting an impression as James Muilenburg…. ‘Every morning when you wake up,’ he used to say, ‘before you reaffirm your faith in the majesty of a loving God, before you say I believe for another day, read the Daily News with its record of the latest crimes and tragedies of mankind and then see if you can honestly say it again.’ He was a fool in the sense that he didn't or couldn't or wouldn't resolve, intellectualize, evade, the tensions of his faith but lived those tensions out, torn almost in two by them at times.” Frederick Buechner, Now and Then, The Frederick Buechner Center, Frederick Buechner Quote of the Day
Donald Miller also struggles with this issue as a young Christian in Blue Like Jazz as all people of faith must do at some time or another. How can a loving God allow so much suffering in the world? So many people come for spiritual direction seeking an answer to this question as well. Faith means believing in something we cannot see or understand, and indeed the question of suffering is something we cannot understand. It is a struggle and a mystery.
Buechner goes on to describe Muilenburg as wearing his faith like a torn garment but holding onto it for dear life. I can see our faith like that torn and frayed garment as a symbol of our struggle with the question of suffering. I see the many times we tear that garment as the Hebrews tear that part of their garment over their heart at the death of a loved one. Our faith garment is covered with ashes as we have worn it sitting down and mourning the cruel inhuman suffering and death of so many from violence, prejudice, and disease.
We can only hold on to the mystery when we see glimpses of Easter and the empty tomb that come from the many Good Friday experiences. We daily experience healing of wounds and see healing dramatically shining through in others if we only look for and participate in that healing. We will see walls break down, wars cease, people forgiving small and unforgivable hurts, new cures for disease developing, family members beginning to speak to each other, but most of all we will begin to see Christ in each other. Christ was there all along, but our anger and resentment blinded us.
Often, we are healed when someone known and unknown comes and looks for and sees the Christ in us. This is called spiritual direction.
Joanna joannaseibert