Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Hurt

Hurt

No one wants to be hurt, either physically or emotionally. But whether we like it or not, hurt is something which happens frequently in our lives. What is hurt? One of the definitions in the dictionary is mental pain or suffering. But most of the time, we experience it emotionally rather than mentally.

When we hurt, others around us suffer. It is the human tendency to always make others hurt when they are also hurt. And often, it is the ones closest to us whom we hurt. Ask ourselves and be honest, how often have we hurt our family members or close ones than our friends? We never want to bear our hurt alone and so we pass it on to others.

Why do I say we suffer from our hurt? To quote Yoda (Star Wars I), he said that anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering. When we hurt, we become angry. Angry because we think that life is unfair that we are the ones to be hurt and not others. We are angry because we think that God has purposely let us experience that hurt. We are angry because others are enjoying themselves and we are suffering from our pain. And most of the time, we tend to keep that hurt to ourselves, we don’t let others know that we are hurting because of our pride. We are too proud to ask for help.

When we become angry, we begin to hate. We hate the life we are living, we try to make others feel miserable because of the poisonous seed of hate that is in us. Misery loves a company, as the saying goes. We love to make others suffer when we suffer. Such is the nature of humans these days.

I was chatting in a Catholic chat room the other day. Someone shared that her son became angry at God for taking his best friend away from him. He is always angry when someone mentions that it’s God’s will.

Which brings us to the question of why God wants us to experience hurt and suffering. Throughout the Bible, we can see that God made his people suffer so that he can show them his love and power. Then again, we may ask, why should God do that? If he’s really loving, why should he make his people suffer? One of the answer is sin. (cf Rom 7:14-20)

It was sin that caused Adam and Eve to fall. Throughout human history, sin has caused so much misery and suffering that we wonder why humans like to inflict so much hurt. I believe that sin is one of the main causes of hurt. Either we sin or others have sinned against us. But you may ask, what about those who do not commit sins which causes hurt? Saints like St Francis Xavier and St Therese of the Child Jesus hurt too and yet they are among the holiest of people. (cf Rom 8:17) When we hurt and suffer, we too share in the glory of Jesus’ cross. Ultimately, we redeem our hurts for a place in heaven. The more we suffer now, the less time we spend in purgatory.

When I hurt, I always want to find someone whom I can share it with. Not in the bad way but just to pour it out. It is always good to talk to someone when we experience hurt, no matter how deep. It may not help much but it will relieve us of the burden that we carry through our hurt. If we go on keeping our hurt, sooner or later, it will explode, and everyone including us will suffer badly. We are like pressure cookers, we can only take so much, and once the limit is reached…you can imagine for yourself what will happen.

But how many of us share our hurt and pain with Jesus? How many of us actually trust in him to take away our hurts? When Jesus died on the cross, he took all our sins, our pains, our sufferings, everything that is harmful to us and he wiped it all away. Why shouldn’t he do it for us now? All we have to do is ask…ask and you will receive. He is our Lord but he is also our friend. Just like the story of the footprints in the sand, he will come to us during our most difficult moments. Until and unless we open our hearts for him to enter, our hurt will not go away. It has to go both ways; Jesus cannot come and help us if we do not want to help ourselves. The first step in conquering hurt is to open our hearts to Jesus. How long it takes for our wounds to heal will depend on us. If we choose to prolong our hurt, it will never go away. If we choose to give it all up to Jesus and go on with life, we’ll definitely make it go away. If Jesus never remembers our past sins and mistakes, then why should we keep it?

Our hurts are like stones tied round our ankles. Until and unless we throw the stone away, we can never be free of that burden. Once we have thrown it away, don’t look back. But the most important thing is to always trust Jesus and offer him all our hurts. In the end, only He can take away our hurts if we let him.

“I was angry with my friend, I told my wrath and it did end. I was angry with my foe, I told it not, my wrath did grow” William Blake

Monday, June 2, 2008

A Reflection on Psalm 140...

When I first watched "The Matrix" in 1999, I did not understand much about the movie. Though it was entertaining, it was a little too complicated for me.

However, one of the things that struck me about the movie was this; everytime they needed to go back to their world, all they had to do was to call "home" and they would be told to go to a certain place and lift up the hpone.

In Ps 140, the psalmist says this "I have called to you, Lord; hasten to help me. Hear my voice when I cry to you." Do we call on God when we are in trouble and when everything is smooth, ignore him?

God will be always be there for us; whether we call on him or not is entirely up to us. I too, forget to call on him sometimes. Let us always make it our point to call on God regardless of good and bad times.