Day 23: Christian optimism and pessimism

I'm still not feeling great so I allowed myself a tiny bit of Instagram scrolling and came across a reel by Kate Bowler about Lent. It was really good. I forwarded to a girlfriend who does Lent with me every year.  

Basically the message is - Lent isn't a 40 day fix up.  It's starting with dust and sitting with who we are and to give up on the fantasy that we will be able to be "finished" some how.  

I love it because I think there is a huge temptation to think of Lent as a 40 day self improvement plan and to me,  that misses what Lent is. It is creating space to feel our humanity and reach towards God with honesty. 

But the reel did something more. It made me think of this huge contradiction in how Christians seem to approach human suffering. Because i don't want to write an incredibly long post I'm going to use stereotypes and broad brushes here. Theology is complicated and humans are even more complicated. 

But I see the struggle that we all have to have a people of faith -- if God is good,  why is there human suffering? And I think, as Christians we rightfully look to Jesus who fully carried this question. And yet,  we can't look fully as Jesus. Because Jesus doesn't give us a straight satisfying answer.  

On one hand,  there are those among us who look to Jesus's conquering of suffering. Jesus healed people. Jesus raised people. Jesus suffered willingly but then defeated death. God wins in the end. Suffering is temporary and healing is inevitable. 

Others among us see Jesus and say - he wept at Lazarus death.  He was a man of sorrows. God came to suffer with us.  To dwell with us in our suffering. 

Some of us lament. Others unswerving optimism.  Perhaps we all find courage in Christ.  

I think it is hard to hold. But perhaps both views are true. God has both conquered death and suffering and yet somehow still dwells with us in it. 

Holy week is coming. The way of sorrow.  The stations. The garden. The grief. The dawn.  The empty tomb. The joyful women. 

Lent does start with dust and finding a way to be honest in our humanity. It is a path marked with grief and bodies that don't cooperate and tiredness and frustration and an inability to reach God the way we want to.  But it ends with an empty tomb and a sun soaked garden.  

Easter is coming. May we rest in God's grace and God's power.