Being Uncomfortable
Being Uncomfortable
Sonnet 64: When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREWhen I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-ras'd
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main,
Increasing store with loss and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay;
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,
That Time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
I stumbled upon this sonnet by William Shakespeare this week and it gripped my heart with a sharpness that shook me. Have you ever read or stumbled across literature or media that hits a little too close to home or makes you feel deeply uncomfortable in a personal way?
This poem is about decay and death and its inevitability and humanity's powerlessness to control it.
There is a Christian tendency to speed right through the crucifixion to the resurrection of Christ. I confess my own proclivity to do such a thing: to cut grief and tears short with a reminder that death is not final. In this way, we avoid the uncomfortable feelings of sadness, of loss, and of powerlessness.
This is not always healthy.
We can trust in the coming resurrection while we still allow ourselves to grieve the state of the world around us, while we allow ourselves to sit in the pain of death happening around us. Christ himself wept at the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus before raising him back to life.
Resurrection is not a band-aid designed to save us from pain or from loss. Instead, it gives us the courage to face these things head-on, to sit with these uncomfortable feelings and to know that they are two sides of a coin God created.
May God make you brave enough to be uncomfortable today and to allow that discomfort to teach you.
Kelsey Lewis Vincent is the Pastor for Youth and Families at First Baptist Decatur. You can follow her on Twitter where she posts about faith, succulents, and her adorable dog, Karl Bark.