bruised

 

Life is A LOT at times, with physical and emotional pain that can open us to others and to God, or cause us to turn in on ourselves. We are frequently counselled to become ‘more resilient,’ but in my honest opinion that is poor advice. We don’t need to harden ourselves (hard things break) but to trust in the kindness and gentleness of a loving God—and so learn how to hold ourselves and others with kindness and gentleness too.

(Those who lack resilience are sometimes referred to as ‘snowflakes.’ Have you ever seen a snowflake!? No two are identical; every one is a masterpiece; they come together under pressure, transform the landscape, melt, soften the earth, and return to the embrace of the ocean. Snowflakes are amazing.)

In the ancient world, writing took the form of incising marks on stone or on clay or wooden tablets, with a hard (iron) stylus. Then the Egyptians developed something new: writing with ink on sheets of papyrus, using a quill made from a bruised reed.

The visionary Isaiah took up that image in his song about God’s servant, the one in whom his soul delights. The servant himself is bruised but not crushed, and, in turn, responds with gentleness. But this gentleness is not weakness, does not lack effect. Indeed, it is the means by which justice will be brought about. That’s a revolutionary idea—as revolutionary as the development of papyrus and a thin reed as a writing instrument—and it is later taken up by Jesus, describing himself.

I am struck by the imagery of our bruising being transformed into a written record, into a story—or, a song—of hope.

And it is hope, rather than resilience, that we need. Writing to the saints in Rome, Paul identified endurance as playing a role in the process by which we connect our present experience to hope. But endurance is not resilience: it is not building up our hardness, but growing in trust, as we learn more of grace: of the kindness of God towards us; of the way his Spirit empowers our spirit. Of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

May your life become a song, perhaps starting in lament but rising to something others will lean in with bated breath to catch, because it stirs their hearts too.

May you rest in peace and rise in glory.

Isaiah 42:1-4

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.