Joy and Pain

Despite frequent personal visits from the Funkapotomus, my overall outlook on the world is relatively sunny. Or at least partly sunny with just a small chance of showers. However, for the past several days, I've had an unusually heavy heart, burdened by the pain and suffering of others. Generally my mood is all about me, so this empathetic feeling is noteworthy.

I believe it started with concern for a dear friend who's closing a particularly painful chapter of her life, culminating in the move to a new home. Even though new beginnings can be a wonderful thing, they're stressful nonetheless. My heart is also heavy for her parents who only recently brought their disabled adult son home after six weeks in the hospital. In what are supposed to be their golden years they're learning how to attend to his challenging medical needs, leaving them physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually spent. There's only so much that meals from friends can do to ease their troubles.

For the past four days I've had my own experiences with care-giving and I can tell you it's no picnic. Rob's been laid up with severe back pain and I've tried to play nurse, a role for which I'm not particularly well suited. Nor is the skimpy nurse's outfit my style, but apparently it cheers him up. Anyway, Rob is hurting in a big way and it hurts me to see him in this condition.

As bad as Rob's feeling, I expect it's nothing compared to the incomprehensible emotional suffering of several local families who've experienced tragic losses in the past week. In South Jersey, four high school football players were killed in a car accident, and much closer to home (in our own school family), a financially distraught father took his own life. On top of that, a work colleague's 67-year-old mother is on life support after being hit by a car while riding her bike two days ago. And in just a couple weeks, the whole nation will mourn on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

How do we survive such pain?

It's life experiences like these that cause many to doubt the existence of God. We've heard kids ask that direct yet impossibly difficult question: "If there's a God, why do bad things happen?" They voice it aloud, while we grown ups struggle with it in silence. And while I'm certainly not about to try to answer that question myself, in my heart and soul I still believe that God is good.

I think that's one of the blessings of Vacation Bible School.

This past Sunday during worship at Media Presbyterian Church we celebrated last week's VBS. (You may recall me modestly mentioning my role as Holly Huckleberry in our Avalanche Ranch production.) The worship service included singing VBS songs, children sharing their testimonies from the experience, and a video recap of the week. Regardless of how worn down I feel after five-days worth of 2 1/2 hour evenings with more than 100 kids, regardless of whether I'm wondering if I've reached a single one of them, this service is always an uplifting and emotional culmination of the time we spent together. And the lessons learned this week were timely given the challenges that life has recently presented:

• God is Always With Us
• God is Real
• God is Strong
• God is Awesome
• God is in Charge

Perhaps the very best thing about this Sunday's service was my view from the back of the sanctuary. From there I witnessed dozens of kids, standing, doing the motions, singing their hearts out to VBS songs. I heard little ones share lessons learned and happy memories of time together. And I was particularly touched by a young girl with Down's Syndrome who joyfully participated in it all, shared kisses with her mom, and in sign language "sang" along to a special performance of Jesus Loves Me. 

And perhaps Jesus loves me is exactly what we need to cling to during times like these.