It’s been a season of pain for people all around me.
Death, and cancer, and betrayal.
My reactions may be similar to yours:
- I cannot imagine how I would deal with such tragedies if I were in their place.
- I am heartbroken. Overwhelmed with grief for them.
- I don’t want to “go there”. I hide in my busyness. I don’t want to dive into the wreckage of my friends’ pain because I can’t fix it.
- I feel desperately awkward because I don’t know what to say that could possibly help.
When something bad happens, people (and by people I mean me) often say the “wrong” thing. We want to comfort, but our heads are filled with words we’ve been told we shouldn’t say, like “I know how you feel.”
So our default mode is to say… nothing.
Last year I heard Cory Booker speak. He’s the mayor of Newark and faces issues of overwhelming violence, poverty, and drugs daily. He cares deeply and is striving for ways to bring health and healing to his city.
He shared that one day he walked home to his apartment in a low-income area of the city, extremely discouraged. He was faced with complex problems and he didn’t know what to do. Continue reading
