Mary Queen of Scots (1542 – 1587), having been born to the
throne, was favoured through her childhood development, yet her contemporary, Queen
Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603), was horribly treated, due to religious and political
adversities, through her formative years.
Mary made a terrible, entitled queen who was thrown off the throne by
her own people. Elizabeth was a special
queen who loved her people so much, her faithfulness to them suggested they
were an extension of her own family.
The narrative of these two monarch’s lives is a litany of
paradox. One had life easier and had the
capacity to be cruel, whilst the other had an arduous early life and became
better for it. This phenomenon isn’t depicted
in every life situation, for many people who’ve had charmed lives are charming
people, and many people who’ve been kicked around by the school of hard knocks
are cynical.
Here’s the typical thing.
We ignore the hurts of others, most especially so when our own needs are
taken care of. But when we’ve suffered
some horrible injustices we can develop an enhanced empathic capacity; the blessing
outbound of brokenness, if we can transcend the temptation to bitterness that
leads to cynicism. Especially if there
is some source of love we can draw hope from.
Then there is a truth that floors us suddenly: when we have all
of life together — or we think we do — we’re only a moment from setting
ourselves above the next person. The
moment we do that in our minds, even before we speak, we begin to think of
those people as ‘those people’:
“We are ‘those people.’ The truth is… we are
the others. Most of us are one paycheck,
one divorce, one drug-addicted kid, one mental health diagnosis, one serious
illness, one sexual assault, one drinking binge, one night of unprotected sex,
or one affair away from being “those people” — the ones we don’t trust, the
ones we pity, the ones we don’t let our children play with, the ones bad things
happen to, the ones we don’t want living next door.”
— Brené Brown
Sometimes when life is cruel God is
amplifying our capacity for compassion.
We learn that we’re only one moment of life’s cruelness away from being
humbled for God’s purposes. Sometimes
having life easy isn’t the best way to live.
We miss out on being exposed to the elements of reality. We miss out on the fullness of life, which is
sometimes indwelt with hardship and pain.
It’s an oft cruel life, but when
life is cruel God helps by proving within us resilience.
Resilience and compassion. Two budding hopes to push on through for when
life is tough.
© 2016 Steve Wickham.
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