Tagged: suffering

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Suffering on Mission

I Peter 4:12-19 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Back in...

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Death and Resurrection

He was a young man, and I could see fear in his eyes as he gripped the railings of the bed and struggled to breathe, sucking in heavily through the plastic mask feeding him oxygen. His body was wasting away from cancer, and the infections that had crept into his...

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Reasons [Reprise]

Note: Originally written several years ago. My mom looks for Reasons the way some people look for spare change on the ground.  She always has an eye out for them, an ear cocked to hear the faintest whisper of a consequence or a lesson.  Most were simple illustrations of basic...

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I didn’t think about that

People wonder why I have such an unhealthy obsession with human suffering and frailty, as if there were some other mystery, some other unfathomable principle in the universe more puzzling, infuriating, and crucial to the human experience. “Tell me,” I ask, with some trace of smugness, “What drives the human...

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Roasting Pan

In the middle of Target is not the sort of place I would expect to receive bad news. The extra twenty dollars I saved by finding my coveted piece of cookware there instead of at Macy’s thirty minutes ago seemed somewhat trite by comparison, and I did what I could...

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Rituals of Annotation

I am not exactly sure of what prompted me to do it, but I began keeping a tally of all the pronouncements I have done.  I never really knew this before, but pronouncements are done in a remarkably simple and impersonal way.  Most patients who die in the hospital do...