This week we’ll listen as Parker Palmer shares the experience of literally “getting stuck” while repelling off of a cliff. The lesson he learned helped him to through a long period of depression and inability to write. Sometimes, when we cannot get out of a situation, “getting into it” is the best thing we can do.

How many of us, when we find ourselves dealing with pain, grief or suffering, try as best we can to distract ourselves or avoid the difficult feelings rather than “getting into them”? 

Psalm 42

Finding those who can sit with you in the grief is sometimes the best thing one can do.  We all grieve, and in differing ways, but we do not have to do it alone.

John 11:1-3, 17-16

In the first of Russ' Lenten Sermon Series, 'Sitting in the Dark: Growing Through the Poetry of Pain,' he begins this journey by recognizing that all of us are broken in some way.  For some that brokenness involves grief, loss or heartache.  For others it is addiction or illness. But all of us are broken.  Many of us see our own brokenness as an end to life, but perhaps it is only the beginning. 

To watch the video of Glennon Melton he references, click here.  

Job 3:1-7

Luke 5:1-11