writing my first blog post has come with lots of pressure. really, a lot more the second time because I have now retyped this twice because it got deleted. so readers, skimmers, or whomever you are… I’m sorry but I cannot promise perfect grammar or coherent sentences. But if you are still reading this, then I think I have something for you to read. (clearly I like it because I typed it all out twice)
why do we all have “jinx, you owe me a soda” moments? or, on a much deeper note, where does empathy come from?
I think these are both very powerful, as separate as they might seem. It is because of connection that these moments are special. In that moment, life becomes about us instead of me or you. There is something so incredible about that word us. -It is like the three strands of hair becoming one beautiful braid.- There is something in that word that is in constant movement. It is connection. This can be like a raging ocean or the breeze. It flows through and between.
Call me crazy but I think that connection has two sides. I’m not just saying that it is something that involves two parties. I’m referring to a top and a bottom. I am saying that true connection is forged through the lowest lows and the highest highs. Take loving someone for example. Loving someone so much and knowing that ultimately they will let you down and it could possibly crush you. or think about if you and your estranged grandmother have lunch after you both found out that she has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. BUT. In loving someone so much, you will let them down also, and when you are both crushed because of it there is now rooted connection there because you must fight for that love. My grandmother and I got to have lunch together because we found out about the cancer. I see not only disaster in these but also overwhelming beauty. I believe that there is something to be said about the ruins and the splendid.
Over this Easter I have learned so much about the Death and Resurrection of our Christ. Specifically the need for them BOTH.
I would like to first shed light on the fact that we were once connected to our Father, The Creator of the Cosmos, GOD. But something happened. That connection was severed by our desire to be our own god. But the problem is we are divine beings but not The Divinity. So we fail. Over and over again.
But, GOD. Came down. He experienced every ounce of those lows. He felt the overwhelming pain of that abuse before you did. He wept over the death of the person you love when He was being whipped and spat on as He walked to His own death. He allowed evil to suffocate and humiliate him to the most excruciating degree. and all for what? You and I. That is not all. He is not going to let you and I stay there crushed.
But, there must be a conquering. Connection was not yet restored. Death must be defeated. This resurrection has the power to overturn our ruins. And it did. This is the beautiful restoration of our relationship with the Father we once knew. It also reconnected the person in India to the ones here in the United States where I am. This all powerful act of empathy stretched over eternity and through all of us.
It is because of the beauty that was resurrected from the ultimate battle that people are able to connect. So let us not be discouraged by the valleys in life. Always remember that those have been conquered eternally and something beautiful is just around the corner.
