Right Side of Pain (HT: Jill Carattini)

I’ve been reading Jill Carattini for years and while I’ve admired and enjoyed her intellect, faith, and writing abilities, I never knew this about her:

Brilliant. As usual.

Here’s a snippet to tempt you, but please do go back and read the entire essay. What a mind! What a heart! What a grace that she points us to God:

“We shuffled back and forth between the states that sat like metaphors between our divorced parents—a summer, a spring break, a Christmas without one of them. The pain of the one we were leaving was always palpable, but we always had to leave.

It’s strange the things we interpret as children with the limited perceptions we have. I was six years old when I silently vowed I would not allow anyone to keep me on the wrong side of people in pain. As a result, I have spent a lifetime collecting strays, searching for the oppressed, feeling the pain of others, and desperately attempting to bind broken hearts, usually without much success. Every church I have ever been involved with has been one somehow marked by suffering. As long as I can remember, I have been somewhat frantic about expanding my circle of care. The world of souls is a sad and broken place. I was certain of this because I was one of them, and I vowed that they would not be alone—or perhaps more accurately, that I would not be alone.

There were other unhealthy patterns to my ever-expanding circles of care …

… God never sleeps or slumbers because those who are hurting never sleep or slumber. Try as we may as caretakers we cannot be as God to the hurting. We can stay awake with them in their pain and suffering, we can care for them as neighbors, but the house in which the suffering find unfailing love is the Lord’s …”