Last summer I was picking black berries in the nearby woods. As I set out I recalled the warnings my late grandfather always gave me. He would say something to the effect of, "Watch out for poisonous snakes. They like to stay around the berry bushes." I remembered that warning and then thought a little bit about my life. I thought to myself, "What is worse than being bitten by a poisonous snake while picking blackberries?" The answer was clear to me: to have never tasted the sweetness of the blackberry to begin with. Since then I have resolved that anything truly worth experiencing--love, life, happiness, etc.--is worth risking for. The greater tragedy would be to let fear hold us so captive that we are afraid to experience life in all of its beauty and fullness. Living is worth the risk of pain and suffering--it has to be! It all lay in the road to happiness. I have come to see that everything is a gift. Even the brokenness. If we can offer this up in faith, God can create a beautiful mosaic from the shards and fragments of our lives.
Such a view does not excuse senseless suffering, rather it defies it. To stand firmly in the face of meaninglessness with an audacious hope is to refuse to let evil and darkness win. We forge our own meaning from the world's meaninglessness and randomness. This is what it means to risk for the sake of living. The journey continues. . . .
Dr. Mike
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