The Space Between

Father,

Please grant that this road we travel,

Together,

Alone,

Would not so shock us that we turn off the path,

Would not so frighten us that we turn our eyes from You,

Would not so hurt us that we despair your touch,

Would not so grieve us that we lose our strength in joy,

Would not so comfort us that we forget the truth,

And yet, we know

Father,

That all these things may happen

And we can only rest in Your love

In the space between our “was” and Your “will be”

Life is Banal if it doesn't suck

Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful. I look back upon them with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence has been through affliction and not through happiness whether pursued or attained. In other words, I say this, if it were to be possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo-jumbo, the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the cross signifies and it is the cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.

--Malcom Muggeridge