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Finding Hope and Comfort in Suffering – the blue flower

Finding Hope and Comfort in Suffering – the blue flower

Last updated on: April 9, 2012 at 10:49 am by Kurt Willems

Finding Hope and Comfort in Suffering – the blue flower 2012-04-09T10:49:25-07:00 Kurt Willems

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*The following is a guest post by Alex Koxobolis. Check out his blog here.

“.. i saw how fragile it was.. and yet how strong.. .. and it touched me”

imagine if that little blue flower had the ability, just for the duration of the man’s visit, to alter it’s surroundings –
to transport itself to a little hand painted ceramic pot with freshly watered, nutrient rich soil, on a window sill with a view of just the sun in all its glory and the perfectly mown lawn of the idyllic garden it was now positioned by – the ability to present itself as the most beautiful and complete little blue flower of all the little blue flowers..
and the guy sees it, mournfully acknowledges its beauty and perfect surroundings and trudges on, unchanged, isolated.

“stupid flower” we’d say (before realizing that plants are in fact incapable of self-conscious anthropomorphic actions in hypothetical situations) –

but *we* do that same thing all the time.. the surrounding world might not like our un-diluted, un-edited selves -so we kind of tend to not show them..

“i’m fine… yeah.. good good, cheers.. you?” then potentially onwards to the next hollow acquaintanceship..

(isn’t that part of why we secretly love the facial book so much? as well as allowing us to share autotuned videos of bed intruders and cat lovers who love to run, it grants us the opportunity to perpetually tweak and re-exhibit our perceived personas.. equipping us perfectly for our next day of public inter-personal avatar projection)

i’m aware that’s an extremely cynical portrayal of human interaction but ultimately – our entire faith centers itself around a lamb that was slain, an outcasted persecuted carpenter who was crucified.. brokenness is integral to the gospel.. Jesus suffered beyond what we can imagine so he wouldn’t have to imagine what it means for us to suffer-

“God knows how I feel” has got to be one of the most consoling and liberating thoughts in our universe..
“i know how you feel” could be the most consoling and liberating words someone in your universe could hear.

it’s absolutely fine to feel good and be content with life, but when we pretend that that’s all that’s going on (or ever has been going on) we exclude ourselves from joining God in the comforting of a planet that so desperately needs it.

the man in the video finds release and consolation and reassurance and hope in seeing death and decay trying it’s hardest yet still being unable to restrain the life contained in a tiny and powerless plant (whose surroundings mirror his own)_ how much greater could that sense of comfort have been if it had been provided by a human?

it would be cool if the flower could take him out for a (presumably non-alcoholic) drink (perhaps a Vimto) or share stories about when the ground was really dry or when the sun was at it’s warmest.. but.

you get my point.. i hope.

if we’re feeling fixed – let’s not deny how good that is but.. let’s not hide our scars- they may just be exactly what someone else needs to see to begin to heal.

if we’re feeling broken – we are not alone. we are in the process of being fixed by the God who has proved that life cannot be restrained.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

amen

optional actions

– listen this to counter-act the potentially melancholy mood i may or may not have induced in you.. http://youtu.be/Y5VgLOs0LwQ

– call someone you’re close to but haven’t spoken to in a bit – ask them how’re they’re actually doing. and then tell them how you’re actually doing.

——————————————————————————————————-
Alex is a musician from London, UK. He has Tourette’s Syndrome and a love for photography, film-making and sneezing pandas.

http://alexkozobolis.bandcamp.com/

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