JC's helper: Life is unfair.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Life is unfair.

I spent today in hospital. It was a trial removal of my catheter four weeks after my TURP operation. When I arrived they looked a bit blank, they did not know why I was there, in spite of the fact I had a letter telling me to report at 9 a.m. today. They sent me through to another ward and they worked out how to sort me out. I had to laugh. I saw a nurse aid who had given me lots of banter when I was in four weeks ago. "Oh no not you! I'm leaving!" she said, and we continued to joke with each other. Later in the day she told my wife I was her favourite patient.
I knew that a lot of time in hospital is spent waiting so I took a book in. I completed reading the book while I drank water and peed. ("voided" is the word the nurse used.) The book is called "In the Beginning - a new interpretation of Genesis." written by Karen Armstrong. If I am reading her correctly when she speaks about the early stories (myths) of Genesis she says in essence that one of the messages is "Life and love are unfair! Get used to it!" Tonight I agree with her.

They decided that I could not go without a catheter and put a catheter back in! I am deeply disappointed. It feels like the whole operation was a waste of time. It feels like nobody really knows what to do and they are just trying different things out. Life is unfair.
I have a sore neck and smashed up car in the drive, all caused by an inattentive Christchurch driver. Life is unfair.
The people who were killed or injured at the Boston Marathon bomb explosions did not deserve what happened to them. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Life is unfair.
100,000 Iraq citizens killed when the British and Americans went into Bagdad were in families just like us, trying to make ends meet, they did not deserve to die because one man was wanted. Life is unfair.
Christchurch, NZ citizens' lives are still horrendously disrupted as a result of the earthquake two years ago. Some have lost loved ones. Many have housing problems and difficulties. Life is unfair.

That's one message in this book and that's how I feel tonight.

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The Blog's title

I am a Workplace Chaplain to the NZ fireservice.

At the firestation every time one man sees me he yells, "Here comes JC's helper!". I guess I am happy to be called just that... "Jesus' helper". I am a follower of Jesus.
A a quote from Dave Andrews in his book, "Not Religion but Love".
"Being a devotee of Jesus is not a matter of subscribing to a certain set of dogmas, obeying rules and regulations, and getting others to subordinate themselves to them.

The essence of being a devotee of Jesus is to live in sympathy with God as Jesus did; feeling the throb of God's heartbeat, and teaching our hearts to learn to beat in sync with the love that sustains the universe.

It means developing our capacity to sense intuitively what causes love pleasure, and what causes love pain, and doing everything we can to enhance the pleasure, and diminish the pain."

I love this charter.

The Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.