Prayer in the Night – Chapter 10
Tish defines suffering as when we are “in acute times of pain…We won’t always know whether the suffering we are enduring is temporary or permanent. Not knowing is a part of our vulnerability, and part of what makes suffering scary and difficult…Suffering strips away self.” (125, 126)
The pain can be emotional or physical. But either way, Jesus felt the pain and suffering we feel. He suffered from rejection and cried physical tears. Maybe it’s because of our vulnerability that God feels the closest when it is the darkest.
Tish writes, “The people I most respect are those who have suffered but did not numb their pain – who faced their darkness. In the process they have become beautifully weak, not tough as nails, not bitter or rigid, but men and women who bear vulnerability with joy and trust. They are almost luminescent, like a paper lantern, weak enough that light shines through.” (137)
Beautifully weak with light shining through…
Oh Lord, in the midst of my limited suffering, that is my prayer – for your unlimited grace to flow through my weakness!
PS – The book by Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night is amazing…I can feel the peace of the prayer over me as if I was snuggling into a comforter on a cold, dark night.
