carving soap (~part 2)

"suffering often indicates that god is setting us free from something" (jacobson/coleman)

"how many of the most significant moments in your life came not because it all went right, but because it all fell apart?...It's strange how there can be art in the agony." (bell)

has that which you've suffered forced your honesty? perhaps you have finally had to take a look at your life and say: the plan did not work, the future must look ever so differently. and could it be that, simultaneously, you have no idea what exactly how it will turn out from here. my friends, you're not alone and it is not for nothing. not this time. not any time.

some weeks ago, i mentioned that i'd heard rob bell speak on this very topic of suffering. he noted that,

"suffering...compels us to eliminate the unnecessary, the trivial, the superficial." (bell)

the sculpture, he said, knows what to take away when creating a masterful art.

so i ask, in all your agony, what must you eliminate, so that the beauty of all that's in you will shine through? perhaps, your most glamorous moment is in the midst of your deepest struggle. and perhaps when you emerge, you will have shed your skin of a dissatisfied life.

failure provides us with an opportunity: to learn, to evolve into who we are meant to be...to grow. may i suggest, ever so boldly, that

"the failed pieces are essential." (bell)

and in the mean-time, know that you, that we are not alone: and isn't that what we desire, to know, to feel that we are not alone in our mess and that it may become something more than for nothing? a community built around suffering ironically, brings greater love and peace among enemies than any other possible commonality.

what's more, friends, is this: the Divine, in all His glory, experienced blood, pain, and agony as if to tell each human being, "i know how you feel."

trust, that, above all.