Front of The Line?

In our upcoming book, “The Art of Pain Management”, we invite you to enter into the world of tension, take off your shoes and sit down. We offer you as much comfort as we can including an introduction, a table of contents, lots of white space, limited and carefully chosen words, clear titles, page numbers, beautiful paintings and sketches by my husband, clearly defined sections, and encouraging tips for making living with pain more manageable. But we don’t offer to take away your pain. We can’t! Nor do we try to offer magic-bullet solutions, quick fixes or formulas with success stories. Instead, we sit with you, in the tension of your suffering. We listen, we relate, we offer examples and stories, and hopefully, we honour you in your pain, knowing that it is holy ground - this place of your suffering.

You may hear many people saying these days that we have “a right” to certain things, certain comforts, certain freedoms. I’m all in favour of equal treatment of all humanity! And especially defending and protecting those who have been oppressed and treated as ‘less than’. I’m in . . . 100%. However, if we’re talking about a desire for freedom, I’m wondering if true freedom doesn’t always come from demanding our rights.

This past week, I watched an interview regarding a new feature film called, “The Mauritanian,” that tells the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi. He was a Mauritanian man imprisoned, without reason, and tortured for 14 years at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo. His story is remarkable and as he describes, it is about more than just himself, it is intended to tell many people’s stories. However, the part that was most profound to me was when he described what freedom was for him. It wasn’t until he chose to forgive his torturers, choosing to want a fulfilling life for them and their families, that he experienced true freedom, in his soul.

He had the right to demand to be free from prison. He had the right to be treated with kindness. He had the right to be repaid for all his suffering and even to make his torturers pay for what they did . . . however, demanding his rights, did not bring about freedom. He found freedom as he forgave. That’s it. That is how it arrived for him.

What could this mean for you and I?

I’ve been waiting for surgery for a long time now. I’m in the waiting line, behind many and in front of many who may feel they deserve to be closer to the front of the line than I am. And depending on the level of pain I’m experiencing, I’m tempted to pick up the phone and demand my right to push past all of them and get right up to the front! Our pain, our suffering, our anxiety, our impatience, our uncomfortableness and our desire to get out of the tension of our circumstances can cause us to want to demand our own way. And as we demand, we feel justified because all we really want is to relieve our suffering.

Here’s what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church (from prison):

“If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.” Philippians 2 (Message)

If you’re suffering, whether in physical pain because of an illness, or emotional pain, or spiritual, or mental pain, relational pain, or financial pain . . . you desire for your suffering to stop. I get it! Absolutely. (I was up twice during the night last night, walking back and forth, trying to ease my own abdominal and back pain). I believe in relieving pain, finding comfort, improving all areas of life for more comfort and ease. Yes, absolutely!

However, when I see, in Jesus, a spirit of serving others, humility, taking on the status of a slave, being a limited human when he had all the rights and power of an almighty God, I must ask myself whether I’m demanding more than Jesus did.

Does this world need us, as followers of Jesus, to be all about demanding our rights? Or, does this world of which we are neighbours within, need us to be about love, forgiveness, serving the needs of others and being “Jesus” to those who do not know Him. We have freedom. If we’ve said yes to the forgiveness of Jesus in our souls, then we ARE free! We must let that freedom seep into all of our lives, including our attitudes, our demands and tendency to want to push to the front of the line.

“Lord, as we anticipate Easter, in our suffering, comfort us. Heal us, we ask. But if that is not the plan, for whatever reasons beyond our understanding, then comfort our pain, ease our anxiety, calm our impatience. You, Lord, washed your disciples feet, you touched lepers, you sat with the oppressed, you comforted those who were lonely and misunderstood and you yourself were misunderstood, called names, and then ultimately killed and discarded for who you were. But in this we have hope, You came to life again. You beat death. You stood up, shook off the wrappings of death, dusted yourself off and walked out of that grave. You give this new life to us, you give us this comfort and freedom in our spirits. You conquered the deepest, darkest moments of despair and you now offer us this hope. Thank you. Replace our demands with gratefulness and help us find a way to find peace within the specific tensions we feel, because of the freedom You offer. amen.”