This is James 5:13a. It’s a tiny stub of a verse but it is powerful. 

The Greek word here is “kakopatheo” is a merged-word for “evil” and “suffer”.

Are you suffering from circumstances that are evil or bad or wrong? James’ advice is to pray.

Circumstance

We are by nature junkies to circumstance. We are happy then things are going as we want them to, we are unhappy when they are not.

While we understand this about ourselves, we also esteem those who while they suffer tragedy, misfortune and evil transcend, overcome, and are not made bitter, vengeful or evil by their sufferings. We see this, esteem this, want this for ourselves, but surely don’t want the necessary suffering that produces this quality. (For more on this see my sermon from a couple of weeks ago.)

James’ answer to this might seem offensive and dismissive, but it is simple, pray.

Common Prayer

Anne Lamont says she has two favorite prayers: “help me help me help me” and “thank you thank you thank you”. I think she’s like most of us who are junkies to circumstance. We pray impulsively and instinctively for God to change our circumstance and end our suffering.

There are times when circumstances change quickly to our liking and we are happy. There are also many times when there are large, important, difficult things that are not changed and we languish.

Psalms

Any reader of the Psalms will know that the experience of suffering evil and maintaining your faith in a God who sees, cares and can act is common. Many Psalms are testaments to unanswered prayers. Many graves are filled with people whose last preoccupation was sent to God in prayer. If the Bible can be honest about this why can’t we?

Many times real prayer begins when common prayer is exhausted.

The life of faith is lived in the wilderness, in places you didn’t chose, in circumstances that aren’t good, in doing good and doing right when the only reward you get for it is more misery. I never see this on any church brochures but it is central to the Christian faith. 

CS Lewis and Mrs. Moore

The 50th anniversary of CS Lewis’ death is a good time to remember the man’s life.

My favorite biography to date is Alan Jacob’s “The Narnian“. He also has one of the lectures in the recent Regent mp3 give away.

CS Lewis as the intellectual and Christian apologist is widely known but in his biography Jacobs also fleshes out more about his relationship with Mrs. Moore, the mother of a friend from WWI to whom he pledged to care for his family if he was killed in the war, which he was. Mrs. Moore had been estranged from her husband but never divorced and Lewis’ care for her became a romantic relationship of which Lewis was always quite secretive.

Jacobs paints the picture of Lewis, after his conversion, while his career is increasingly demanding also trying to care for his brother with a weakness for alcohol, and Mrs. Moore in her senility and preoccupation for the house-breaking failures of their dog named “Bruce”.

Whatever comfort Lewis had in the affection and encouragement of the great Italian priest, back at the Kilns he had the constant image of Minto’s decline before him and the increasing unreliability of Warnie. (When Jack had been taken to the hospital, Warnie gave Minto a stern lecture, demanding that she release him from all domestic duties and allow him to go on a vacation. Apparently taken aback by Warnie’s uncharacteristic boldness, she agreed, but immediately thereafter the prospect of being her chief caregiver, even for a short time, depressed Warnie so much that he went on a major bender. No holiday for Jack.) Minto had been a semi-invalid for several years, thanks to varicose ulcers in her legs, and she suffered from some degree of dementia: her obsession was her elderly dog, Bruce, whom she demanded be taken out a dozen times or more a day for his “little walks”—and of course, it was Lewis who had to walk him.

Jacobs, Alan (2009-10-13). The Narnian (Plus) (pp. 250-251). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

This is the picture of a brother caring for his brother, and a friend fulfilling an old oath that went a wandering, and the world not being able to figure out how he could justify these priorities.

As I look at Lewis’ life, especially the hard things (the premature death of his wife later would shake his faith to its roots) and see that in fact he could not have been used by God as he was without the hardships and the faithfulness with which he sought to be true.

The Talking Cure

Freud famously appropriated this phrase to describe psychotherapy. We need to talk about hard things and I would suggest that prayer is a key part of this.

When you have no power to change things. When cutting and running is not or should not be an option. Where do you take your troubles? Who can you take them to?

God is a fine therapist, the best listener, a close confident.

Suffering + Prayer = Saints

This is not new of course. Jesus modeled it for us. Philippians 2 proclaims it.

Hurt people hurt people.

When hurt people pray and struggle to not pass on the hurt but try to return good for evil, salt preserves the earth and saints grow the kind of humble muscle that unanswered, uncommon prayer affords.