We Applaud God
“We may not emerge out of times of suffering healthy, strong or healed, but we do come out different. Changed. Some even come out with a vocation. As if the dust that has settled formed a path of purpose, with the first sign of clean air allowing for a deep inhale and a look of resolve. Picture me looking down that road as I type this sentence.
“Suffering drags you deeper into yourself,” says David Brooks. “It smashes you through a floor you thought was the bottom floor of your soul, revealing a cavity below, and then it smashes through that floor, revealing another cavity, and so on and so on. The person in pain descends to unknown ground. Suffering opens up ancient places that have been hidden. When people are thrust down into these deeper zones, thrust into lonely self-scrutiny, they are forced to confront the fact that they can’t determine what goes on there. It shatters the illusion of self-mastery. It teaches gratitude. We realize how undeserving we are.”
If I can ascend up into the gym or studio - the shallow periphery that I know as well as any and better than most - when was the last time you and I praised and applauded God for His allowance of our limits? Forget our basements, but what about for our ceilings? Limits are both above and below.
And if the world hears that as an admission of weakness, they're right. Only, we know it as applause. An applause that echoes off the bottom floor of our despair to the rooftops of our ability. An applause from us; the stoppable. When we own our weakness, we applaud God.”
- Jimmy Peña