tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19936712.post2655274148025555777..comments2024-02-14T23:28:11.026-08:00Comments on FORGOTTEN PROPHETS: Case StudiesJack Hhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04599425185005999225noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19936712.post-42149747953414268002007-06-27T05:26:00.000-07:002007-06-27T05:26:00.000-07:00I suppose pain is necessary in the sense that it i...I suppose pain is necessary in the sense that it is unavoidable. <BR/><BR/>But how insensitive of you -- it's *Michelle*, not "Robert." We must acknowledge these legalities, law abiding citizens that we are. The judiciary is after all the highest branch of government, as the ACLU has proven. Federalist Papers? What are the Federalist Papers?<BR/><BR/>I've held different positions about suffering. Yes, it is fertilizer for the soul. I can't bring myself to call it nutrition. But I can't recall any Psalm of thanksgiving, for suffering. Perhaps there is one, or more. *Thank You, O Lord, for mine affliction.* Psalms would stand for the emotional life, and caught up in the moment, what did David do but cry out in anguish, not in gratitude. Paul, a thousand years later, might thank God for his suffering, and for all things. I won't say he's wrong. But David is easier to relate to. It must be one of those wisdom things -- sometimes one, sometimes the other. <BR/><BR/>Depression is just a feeling. It's not suffering. We ride whatever beast we find ourselves upon, and try to go in the direction we think best. Some journeys are painful. So be it. That's not a reason to stay behind. <BR/><BR/>JJack Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04599425185005999225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19936712.post-47864772848865361452007-06-27T04:31:00.000-07:002007-06-27T04:31:00.000-07:00Regarding depression: Since accepting, as you say,...Regarding depression: <BR/><BR/>Since accepting, as you say, the fact that pain is a necessary and integral part of adult life in this world, (increasing as more and more Robert Kosileks succeed in driving the news, it seems) the nature of my depressions seems to have changed. <BR/><BR/>I now welcome its arrival as an opportunity to master it through faith, and I am changed. Not that I am less depressed, but rather, that, as a consequence of successfully engaging, I deepen. <BR/><BR/>We Westerners have been deprived of the natural opportunities for the development of real character through suffering these days, (unless it involves having to tolerate the inmates running the asylum, that is) that those of us who recognize the situation must take our opportunities where we find them and make the most of them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com