All of us wrestle with suffering. Our own, the suffering of others, or a tangled interconnectedness of the two.

It is a good thing that we work to ease the suffering and pain of others. This isn’t what we were created for. At the same time, we are also helpless in the face of so much suffering.  We don’t know what to make of it.

But if we’re willing, we can let it remake us.

This is what I find so beautiful about redemption: that in the end, the same God who weeps with us in our suffering also uses that suffering to transform and refine us. Even when we cannot change the circumstances, we can allow ourselves to be formed by them. In that vein I’d like to share my next poem with you: a blessing for the suffering.