Life is not easy. When we read fairy tales to our children, and create literature that always has a happy ending, we do an injustice to our society. Have you ever watched a Japanese film? The ending is almost always unsatisfactory to the American audience. The ambiguity of it leaves us wanting to know more; wanting to know why. I think they are more like real life, even when they involve unrealistic motions and extreme leaps and turns.
Because life is more like the motions of those characters: it seems to flow and then suddenly takes a leap to dangle from rooftops or twists in midair to throw a punch in a completely different direction. For the American audience, we really got to be familiar with this kind of character in Keanu Reeves’ Nemo of “The Matrix” series. Keep your eye on the way his body moves, and you will feel a familiarity you didn’t expect.
Everyone has problems. There are some that are cultural; most individuals are in some way dissatisfied with their government or their school system or maybe even the medical care available. They may not be horrified enough to do something about their dissatisfaction, and maybe it is more of a mere discomfort not needing real change, only the ability to work through it.
Some problems are more social. Somewhere in the world there is war, and we often have friends or family directly affected by it. There are people starving while others gorge and then worry about their size. There are diseases that we never knew existed, or that morph into some other version that the medications cannot keep up with.
Even when we see that our problems affect more than just us, it is primarily when they do, that we take a personal interest. We wonder that people can do these things. We want to know why this hasn’t been properly addressed.
There are some things that simply can’t. Sometimes bad things happen to good people for no acceptably explainable reason. Sometimes something that can be taken care of, is not, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes all you can do, is just not enough.
Some people are more sensitive than others. Some people can go through life barely permitting themselves to be impacted by the sorrows of another. They are not mean or cruel, they have simply learned to adapt to an ever-changing environment.
Some people are extremely sensitive, feeling every hurt visited upon their loved ones, or even strangers in their vicinity. They allow themselves to be impacted by every twist and turn of life’s path, rather positive or negative. They become overwhelmed by the world, or try to lead the changes.
We, as a human population, need both kinds of people. We pray that we fall somewhere between the extremes, but it is often the extremes that give us catalysts for personal change. But it is not until it becomes personal that we notice the need for change.
Change is part of living, rather external or internal. It will happen, and it will be continuous. We want our world wrapped up in neat little packages; to fall into pre-defined categories so we know how to deal with them. We want a distinct beginning and end. But that is not realistic.
There will come a time when you want to scream, because you have had enough, or can’t do enough, or maybe because you don’t have enough. Christians like to say “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” I don’t think that’s at all true. We usually have more going on than we can handle. We always have more than enough:
When our problems seem more than enough, if we look, we will find exactly what we need. It might be a friend to listen and to commiserate with us, just as they rejoice with us. It might be a family member who gives even though it hurts, just because they now we hurt more. It might be the patience we never thought we had, just because we must have it in that moment. It might be a few words to make us think in ways we had never before considered.
“God” has given me more than I can bear. But with these burdens also comes greater vision. I do not need to understand all things. I only need to be thankful for what I have, and the patience to bear this out, knowing that through my weakness I will find strength. It may be internal or external. It is not likely to play out according to my expectations. I may not have enough, be enough, or can do enough, but everything that must be, is, because I have exactly enough to keep breathing. Sometimes that is all I need to do.