Stepping Stones

Jack H once said, "...I can say, with considerable authority, that there is no observation we can make about pain, that is original. I wrote somewhere, of Adam clutching his dead son’s head, weeping tears his exile never taught him. Real pain is the pain we feel for the pain of those we love. Love harder, love more, then. Just to spite whatever bastard force there is in this world that loves evil. "
-- "Truth!", I say. "Its presentation seems to be like deep calling out to deep ... something already held inside, yet never pulled out from my soul ... until now. An unspoken thought, now expressed, has been been made manifest in to tangible truth."

So often I've said things along these lines, "I hope there is a God defined by goodness and love whom, because of my finite nature, I cannot comprehend; but the pain and horrid evil in this world is so palpable it crushes me."
The Master Kat recently told me, "You need to reverse the proposition. Though it may be a needed approach from time to time, the pattern by which you are thinking will lead to stagnation and death if you hold on to it for too long. Reverse the proposition. ... You must teach yourself to say, 'The pain and horrid evil in this world is so palpable that it crushes me; yet I hope there is a God defined by goodness and love whom, because of my finite nature, I cannot comprehend."
-- "Ah....," says the grasshopper, "You are a wise man, Master Kat!"

My wife and I vistited the church of some friends of ours today. Our friend Liz gave her first sermon. As I listened to her message, I held in my hand the audience participation tool she provided to each congregant: a plain white postcard with a black dot in the middle. The relatively vast white area represented the goodness of life while the black represented the annoying, hard, and difficult things we encounter. The message was about perspective... the importance of staying focused on the positive things in life. But I took something else out of it.
-- Why am I content to say, "Yes ... there is goodness in life, but an honest evaluation must conclude with the admission that pain and evil rule the day."?? Why is that my final conclusion? Doesn't light shine equally as bright today as it did one thousand years ago? Why do I so easily disregard the fact that love, and faith, and hope are as persistant through the ages as hate, pain, and evil? I cannot ignore the fact that the blite upon the earth that is the black dot only steals my focus because it lay upon a white backdrop.

So now, I shall reverse the proposition as the Master Kat has suggested.
"Evil, hurt, and pain exists today, as they have for thousands of years. Equally persistent are the forces of love, hope, and faith. Although the very real attrocities of the world crush my soul, ... I hope in a good and loving God who is bigger than my understanding. Just as death is evidence of the reality of darkness, so life, laughter, and joy will be to me evidence of goodness."

I shall love harder, more than ever before. And to the best of my ability. And I shall do it, as Jack H has suggested ... just to spite whatever bastard force there is in this world that loves evil.