I don’t want to give the impression that transforming problems is easy. Quite the opposite really. But it is a lot more productive and results in a heck of a lot more growth than running away from them. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua – and on and on and on. (Read Hebrews 11 for a more detailed anthology.) If the Bible ain’t your cup of tea, then Hollywood provides numerous similar examples – Frodo, Neo, Marcus Gluteus Maximus, Batman, to name but a few.
A chap called Joseph Campbell looked at all these stories and wrote a book - The Hero With A Thousand Faces. In it he describes the common landmarks in what he has termed The Hero’s Journey, the transformative adventure all would-be hero’s must go on (and we all want to be a hero).
- Hearing a calling
- Committing to the calling
- Crossing the threshold
- Finding guardians/mentors/companions
- Facing the demon
- Developing new resources
- Completing the task
- Returning home
We all face problems and if we chose to ignore what they are telling us they become crises, just so we really do pay attention to them. But a problem is not there to cause us, well…problems, it’s there to call us towards growth, towards life. And the demon is something that just needs transformed, not fought and defeated, and often something within ourselves.
This is the transformative power of Jesus and his cross – the gospel, the good news to those with problems, the poor. As Richard Rohr says, “There is a unique truth that our lives alone can reflect. That’s the only true meaning of heroism as far as I can see…The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own reality. That is everybody’s greatest cross.“
Andof course, the cross is embedded, somewhat paradoxically it would first appear, in love. If we can accept love and identify with the cross, then our problems will be transformed – so that the next one can come along!! But so we begin to rejoice in our sufferings as we welcome the opportunity to learn how to love more.
I’m up for it – how about you?
