Brene Brown and the G-d who "sits with you in it"

I love Brené Brown. She always prompts me to think. I always consider that a gift.  And I think she is onto something important here.

Frankly, I have never found constructs of a rescuing deity terribly credible. I do not believe G_d necessarily swoops in to save us from our suffering. That raises all kinds of problems about why the suffering occurred in the first place. (Is G-d pissed at me for something? Did I not ask for rescue properly? Must I do something to get the rescue to kick in?) It also raises all kinds of questions about who gets rescued and who doesn’t? (Why was Florida spared the killer hurricane and not the Bahamas or the Carolinas? Why did I survive the crash and not my best friend? Why am I still here to talk about the death camps while so many died around me?)

In particular, I don’t believe that G_d rescues us from ourselves. Our individual problems occur in given contexts, much of which is out of our control, surely enough. And those contexts sometimes need to be changed. Think a society sodden with weapons of war.

But G-d doesn’t simply send a thunderbolt down to eradicate AR-15s. Those are our creations, not G-d’s. And it is our responsibility to deal with them.

Suffering is Simply Part of the Deal

One of the lessons we could learn from Buddhism is its fundamental understanding of suffering expressed in the First Noble Truth: Life involves suffering. It is as natural a part of life as birth or death. While life clearly involves more than suffering, presuming that one’s life should be free of suffering, the entitlement to constant comfort that our consumerist culture has taught us is our birthright (and for just $5.99 you, too, can have….), is both incredibly egocentric as well as bound for frustration.

Suffering is simply part of the deal we agreed to when we came into this world.  It is one of the things that make us human. The question then becomes not whether we will suffer but how we will respond to it.

That probably leads some of us to wonder, so what is G-d good for then, if not to rescue me, rescue us, from our distress (noting the egocentric, consumerist, utilitarian presumptions here that would see G_d as a means to my own ends)? Indeed, aren’t the scriptures full of pleas from their writers to do just that?

I think Brown has that question nailed here: G-d is present with us. 

G-d makes it possible to endure the suffering with a modicum of grace. G-d comes to us in the form of medical experts who sometimes can cure our bodily ailments if not simply ease our level of pain. And G-d comes to us in the form of friends, family, neighbors, students, teachers, teammates, clergy, fellow parishioners and often in the guise of up-to-then complete strangers who share our suffering with us. It is this band of very human means of grace who help us heal in the face of suffering, whether we ultimately recover from the sources of that suffering or not.

There is a reason that in our weekly Prayers of the People we pray for “those who are alone” and “those who minister to the sick, the friendless, the needy.” If the presence of G-d is to be known in those lives of suffering, it is the people of G-d who make that possible. Those prayers are inevitably directed toward us at least as much as toward G_d.

Human Angels Who Have Been the Face of G_d

But Brown is right. We don’t provide an epidural. We don’t have one to offer. What we bring is the presence of the Holy One who sits with us in our suffering, whose angels hover around our sickbeds and accident scenes, the same Holy One whose strong but gentle hands await our souls at the end of our life journeys. At a very basic level that’s an enormous entrustment on the part of G-d. And an incredibly important calling for the people of G_d.

This day I am grateful for the angels who have long hovered around my life, doing their level best to keep me safe at times when I was hell-bent on placing myself in harm’s path. I am grateful for all the human angels who have been the face of G_d to me in my lifetime – and there have been many. And I am grateful for the G-d who is present with me every nanosecond of this transitory life - inescapably, intimately, unconditionally.

Most of all, I am grateful this day for wisdom of Brené Brown who reminds me of all of these things for which I should be thankful. Deo Gratias!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Harry Scott Coverston

Orlando, Florida

frharry@cfl.rr.com

hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? (Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

 © Harry Coverston 2019

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++