A Year in Letters # 1
Thursday, January 6, 2022
Hello All,
During a few quiet moments recently, I took time to page through a book passed on to me by Cindy Little, our friend and former Pastor, called “Gospel Medicine” by Barbara Brown Taylor. As I thumbed through the pages, I noticed a chapter heading titled “Arthritis of the Spirit”. Now, being a member of “Uncle Arthur’s” fan club myself, my curiosity was definitely piqued. Knowing what a blessing the physical form of the disorder is, I certainly wanted to understand and avoid any possible spiritual version of it!
As it turns out, Arthritis of the spirit, in its simplest terms, is resentment. It is the cooking down, so to speak, of anger that has not been recognized, faced and released into the “void” where it belongs. When we become angry at something or someone, there is a psychological, but also a physiological response within us. If we see the anger, realize why it is there and understand that forgiveness is the best way for all involved, the wound can be healed. But if, however, we cannot or will not allow forgiveness to come, something different happens.
In the anecdote that Taylor shares, she refers to a store clerk with a particularly unpleasant and even menacing demeanor about her. She wonders why the lady is so outwardly resentful towards her for the simple request she made. She feels downright fearful of the clerk and recognizes pretty quickly that something much deeper than simple annoyance is at work here. Taylor surmises that what she is observing is not actually aimed at her. The lady seems to be the victim of her own anger, which has grown into open resentment towards her customers.
The author speculates that the anger the clerk shows to the world might have nothing to do with herself, or even any customer that appears. Instead, she wonders if it has to do with a long-standing resentment and unhealed hurt that the lady has suffered. Someone, somewhere, at some time has hurt the lady clerk. But without the healing balm of forgiveness to apply to her “wound”, it has continued to fester until simple hurt and anger has turned into something much worse.
She now has the bone-deep and agonizing condition that “Arthur’s” relatives can recognize. Her affliction is at once worse than and far less serious than actual Arthritis. On one hand, it is debilitating and terribly painful but, there is a cure for the spiritual version. It’s a simple anecdote, really. Note: I said simple, not easy. Forgiveness is a pretty simple idea. You’ve got to let it go. But there is a whole world within those 3 words. “LET IT GO”. (No, Elsa…no singing {Disney reference})
Anyone who has every suffered hurt by another, be it purposeful or unintentional, knows how complicated that concept can be. But in the end, the one most injured by our resentment is our own heart. The pain we project into the world in the form of anger and hostility only serves to break us down.
None of us is immune to this disorder. There are times when I will dredge up wounds, embarrassments and angers that are decades old! Now, how ridiculous is that? That I would hold onto things that were said and done to me so long ago, is such a waste of my time. And it’s a safe bet that the person that did the hurting has LONG since forgotten.
I treat my Osteoarthritis with every tool at my disposal. So instead of keeping the old wounds open, I will learn to apply the balm of forgiveness to my spirit PRN (pro re nata in Latin, meaning as needed). Because it is the best and only treatment for “Arthritis of the Spirit”. The GOOD NEWS is, it is proven effective! He taught us that. We only need use the cure.
Yours in Christ,
Elizabeth Murphy
