In The ‘Ish

Writing this for friends who are struggling with their faith and those in the throws of the half empty cups of life:

When people are in ‘ish, and I mean tough, brutal, painful stuff where trauma has occurred and the hurt is beyond deep, don’t be spiritual with them.

IshBe relational instead.

Telling someone you will pray or quoting a Bible verse or reminding them what your favorite theologian/pastor/teacher/author said could feel more impersonal than you intend.

Those spiritual things, while sometimes helpful, still keep you at a distance from their pain where you can be safe, protected, not involved and unaffected.

But a relational response means you choose to get into the dirt, the mud, the ‘ish with them and look them straight in the eyes and say I’m in this with you. You are not alone. You are not alone.

I think this how empathy differs from sympathy. Sympathy expresses concern and sadness for someone as they experience deep pain. Empathy, by definition, allows you to understand and share in the feelings of another.

The best teacher I know who does this: Jesus.

The Intersection

What I’ve found to be true in the intersection of God and us:

Life is hard. Struggle is real. We suffer often.

We lose people we love. We walk through pain and the suffering that comes with it.

The world is not kind but it is bearable. Evil exists and sin is rampant. Hope may feel elusive but it, along with love, never fails. No one has an easy life that is problem free.

When sin entered the world it guaranteed heartache for humanity for generations to come.

We climb large mountains, experience rest for a season only to see new summits on the horizons of our lives. Keep moving. Don’t stop.

God invites us to not only find him, but discover him anew in the journey of our lives. Allow our understanding of him to intersect with the actual reality of him in the pain, the deaths, the illnesses, the divorce, the abuse, the addictions, the depression, the rejection, the apathy, the loneliness, the unanswered questions, the failed faith, the church wounds, the atheism, the lifestyles and more.

Engage him in your thorns and thistles, your tears and silent sobs. I believe that what we find will simply leave us speechless. The world is beautifully scarred but God is doggedly committed and in the business of fixing broken things – namely, human beings.