“Ignorance is bliss.” English poet Thomas Gray
Yesterday I tweeted an old thought that came to mind a couple of years ago. It said, “Which is better, to be happily deceived or disillusioned, yet aware?” So much of my life over the last 10 years has been about wrestling with my own disillusions, yet aware that they exist.
And as I was driving this morning I was thinking there are essentially three approaches to dealing with pain and suffering. We can simply ignore the pain and suffering, moving through life as happily deceived, yet still suffering under the weight of circumstance. We can acknowledge it’s existence as though we have no capacity or power to deal with it. Or we choose to move in through and beyond it by addressing it.
The first option I think is the most common. It’s just easier to ignore reality, even when it our ignorance is the very thing that fuels that reality’s existence. The second option is depressive. To see the problem and resolve the self to the idea that nothing can change is despairing, if not nihilistic. The third option is to confront the problem causing the pain and suffering. Yet to do that we have to assume we have the capacity to overcome it. And unless we see who we really are, as beloved children of God, we likely won’t.
When Jesus said, “Come follow me,” I can’t ignore that it led him to the cross. But the cross was a waystation. It wasn’t the final destination. What if Jesus knew that to get to the other side of pain and suffering we had to go through it.
I’m learning that my ignorance is not bliss. It’s destructive and painful in all the wrong ways. It compels me to infinitely poor choices that usually lead to regret. But when I confront my ignorance and set down my pride, I can usually find my way through.
I was also thinking, “So much of pain and suffering feels like hell. It feels like walking through the fire. It feels like separation from God. Because in the midst of pain and suffering, when I’m ridiculously honest with myself, my heart is crying out, “Where are you God!” Is it really possible that God could actually forget me.
“When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Isa 43:2
The only way I can discover the other side of the cross is to keep walking towards it.
