- recall that pain and suffering, although not distributed equally among us, are part and parcel with every human experience. Therefore, any alleviation from specific pain via a healing or some medical breakthrough is likely to give way at some point to another form of suffering, as blissful as the relief may initially have felt.
- listen to our friends' suffering. I'm desperate to talk about my pain, but it is not a subject most people enjoy listening to - maybe it reminds them of another trauma of their own or its simply depressing. In our social interactions we seek out laughter, intrigue, news, stimulation. Depressing pain doesn't tick many of those boxes.
- don't let the fatigue that accompanies the pain stop you from taking alleviating measures. I have just boiled the kettle for my hot water bottle which alleviates my gut pain, but I've slept badly and the kettle is well, literally metres away! And I'm typing an important blog post about suffering.
- The Christian bit: God's story as exposed in the bible includes occasional, non-permanent release from suffering, except of Jesus' resurrection of course, which still bears the marks of his suffering. So apparently we are never to forget these great trials. The key question, perhaps not sufficiently developed to my mind in the Bible, is how we can walk alongside one another in our physical and psychological trials, not just pushing for the miraculous breakthrough but accepting simple companionship in the harsh brutality of this part of life?
Thanks for listening in! If you'd like to write in with your suffering I promise to read through it and acknowledge it, probably nothing more than that.
