The Stewardship of Pain
Author and Theologian Frederick Buechner used the phrase the stewardship of pain and said ‘It is I think important to keep in touch with the sad times, the hard times, of our lives. For those times we often have felt most alive, most vitally human. We need to keep in touch because that is where we are most open to the pain of other people, and most aware of two things, our own powerlessness, where we are crushed, but also God’s power to pull us through to be with us in it.’ By keeping in touch with the pain it allows us to be true to who we are and in the the words of Isaiah instead of ashes, the oil of joy. As we can see from the cross of Christ, out of that greatest pain comes the greatest beauty and the greatest hope. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.
