Creativity and Suffering

Over lunch and lemonade last week, I learned a great deal about suffering, creativity, and being in the flow from our associate pastor,  Rev Dale Fredrickson. Meeting with a family who had been through unspeakable tragedy, he was asked to create and read a poem for the memorial service. He spent time with all family members and poured his heart and soul into the creation and reading of the poem, which was eventually heard by more than 4,000 people. Out of this passionate reading came a book of poetry, a spoken word album, and many requests for additional poems. The most incredible thing to me is that Dale (www.dalefredrickson.com) was not aiming for success and achievement, books and blog readers, he was aiming to heal hearts.

As we talked and I shared my hope that I could create something beautiful out of my suffering over the past 18 months, he referred me to the book Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering by Rob Bell (www.robbell.com). I've already shared with you how much I enjoyed Rob Bell's presentation on "What We Talk About When We Talk About God" and I am enjoying that book, as well. So I bought Drops Like Stars today and started reading. In the first chapter there is a passage about a young man who lost his entire family in Nazi-occupied Poland. His anguish is described like this:

"Ripped out of the soil of his background, his life could no longer be what it used to be. He now began a journey to deeper communion with God. But it didn't come without tears, and it didn't come without what seems to have been a certain existential horror."   Rob Bell adds this aside, "Suffering can do that to us, we're jolted, kicked, prodded and shoved into new realities we never would have brought about on our own. We're forced to imagine a new future because the one we were planning on is gone."

That young man later became Pope John Paul II. I hope that through grace and honesty I can also move into a new future where I can write for joy and healing, not only for myself but of others. If the spirit moves, perhaps I will find a wider audience, but perhaps not. Even one life touched would be enough.

***Post script: In the first few pages Bell describes suffering in this way, "Lots of parties are missing somebody." I was missing at my father's 70th birthday / my brother's 40th birthday / my nephew's first communion. I missed you all very much; I know you had a great time and I am so happy that everything went well, but please get in touch soon and tell me all the good stories :).