"What you resists, persists". Supposedly Nietzsche said that so my pastor may have missed a great opportunity to quote Nietzsche in his thought-provoking sermon recently.
He talked about the Stockholm and Stockdale syndromes. Which is to say he talked about how humans deal with reality when it's stressful or painful. In the Stockholm situation people sided with the oppressors, on the other hand, General Stockdale was fully accepting of what he was experiencing in a Vietnamese prison camp but decided that he also could be above it.
Also Pastor Dan brought up God's ability to make "all things work together for good" which if really thought through means that at some level all things are good. It also means that we can face reality honestly and squarely.
My faith in God's grace is what allows me to face current reality. Anything that may show up is well covered by God's goodness whether it is something about me or circumstances.
And not just passively sit in whatever it is. In Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton says
"For our Titanic purposes of faith and revolution, what we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as compromise, but some way in which we can heartily hate and heartily love it. We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. "
Vice Admiral Stockdale passionately lived in what was going on for him... the abuse and humiliation and his deep committment to surviving. This is integrity. He transcended fear and oppression and lived in essence a faith-filled life.
Can we do the same in all of our areas of life? Can we do the same as God who actually doesn't resist anything but in a miraculous way moves into it and converts it. "All things work together for good..."
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