I know how you feel.

A week ago I attended Rob Bell's book tour,  Drops Like Stars.  Zondervan describes the book as 

 "an exploration of the complex relationship between suffering and creativity, driven by the belief that there is art in the agony."  In his presentation, Rob touched on different arts such as the art of solidarity, art of disruption, and the art of elimination.  My biggest take-away from the night came from the art of solidarity.  As part of Rob's well rounded message, every person in the audience had an index card and in their non-dominant hand wrote the words, "I know how you feel."  Rob asked a series of questions, "Have you ever been addicted to anything?", "Have you asked yourself, 'How am I going to pay the bills?'", "Have you ever been betrayed?"  After each question you were to find someone that you didn't know and switch cards with them.  In a matter of minutes it was evident that although many of us think that we are alone in our struggles, we are anything but.  

Another thought of Rob's that I resonated with was this, "When I suffer, this too will shape me.  The time will come when I will have to begin to entertain the idea that there is a new tomorrow and that I will be ok."  Despite the efforts that we put into place to plan tomorrow and the weeks and months ahead.  We don't expect a curve ball to be thrown or a wrench placed into our plans, but when that happens there will be a period of shock, feelings of defeat, a time of contemplation, etc.  It is then that we will pick up the pieces, because even the failed pieces are important; and we will start to think that perhaps there is a tomorrow that we have not planned and something great is waiting to come out of it. 

The art of solidarity.  Just last night I looked at my note card and wondered how could Jesus know anything about how I am feeling.  Does He know how it feels to be used and to be forgotten?  Does He know the pain of words that stab like a knife?  Does He know loneliness?  Has He been robbed of joy and trust?  Tasted failure?  Does He know what it's like to try to work with an uncommitted person?  It wasn't long before I was reminded of how Judas gave him up so easily; how Peter denied him three times, the many who cursed his name and the millions of uncommitted people today who he desperately wants an intimate relationship with yet they would rather remain lukewarm and not buckle-down for anything too serious.  Yeah,  He knows how I feel. 

In the end I wonder how many of us forget or don't realize that God is screaming alongside us when the difficult and unexpected happens.

 my notecard.