Nothing can fill the gap when we are away from those we love, and it would be wrong to try and find anything. We must simply hold out and win through. That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time, it is a great consolation, since leaving the gap unfilled preserves the bonds between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; He does not fill it, but keeps it empty so that our communion with another may be kept alive, even at the cost of pain.
This is where I sit.
Bonhoeffer and I sat with this thought time and again while I was in Asia. It reminds me of something Murray is always saying, about how maturity is not found so much in the ability to resolve tension as the grace to sit in the tension and hold it.
ReplyDeleteAnd here you are, holding (and maybe, sometimes, being held by) the tension between homelands, between the dreaming and the coming true, between sorrows and joys, between the alreadys and the not-yets... I see His strength in you.
I love you. I miss you. *hugs and crumpled monkeys*
thanks for sharing that. It's nice to hear someone like Bonhoeffer affirm these thoughts and feelings.
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