Unlike our ancestors, we live privileged lives, enjoying more comforts and opportunities than the ancients could ever have imagined. Yet none of us is immune to suffering, nor can we afford to remain oblivious to the costs, borne by the earth and her impoverished people, of the violations that result from highly consumptive living.
Here is the seed that must be cracked for us to grow: The doorway into fuller, deeper living is called suffering, which can be another name for love. And, while suffering can ennoble as it humbles, so much of it is needless while all the rest is necessary. But none of it should be romanticized or spiritualized. For suffering-love bears the hardest, most fruitful harvest in anyone’s life. Passion is the hard part of compassion, the shadow cast by the light of love. A shadow wherein the hidden Holy One awaits.
—from the book Wandering and Welcome: Meditations for Finding Peace
by Joseph Grant
