Spirit in the World

  I am thinking about the idea of life as an eternal cycle, and how we can often be comforted by the fact that anxious moments are not 'forever' but can be an opportunity for growth.  Where does the faith come from, however--to know that suffering is not 'forever'? That's an interesting aspect which most spiritual teachings share.
    During the class today on Media and Evangelism, Dr. Hess mentioned the idea that one can only be comfortable with the tension and conflict of strangers when there is a strong sense of hope is beyond that. I don't think this is about getting a 'reward' for being kind to strangers. It has rather to do with the ability to contain tensions when there is a larger space in which to work through those same tensions. But, in another sense, it goes deeper than this. In fact, the tension itself is perhaps the key aspect to the realization of the 'beyond that'. I am not talking about either masochism or resignation. "Masochism" is the belief that embracing suffering can lead to a transcendent gain, while resignation suggests that suffering is only a side effect of a spiritual path. Both ideas aren't quite it. I think it's more productive to suggest that one needs to bear out the entire story of the stranger in order to get beyond the self and transcend the tensions of self and other, all the while quietly bearing those tensions.
    I might try to put it in another way. Sometimes, we might think there is something standing over the whole world, and we have to bear the world patiently to please or attain what stands over it. Another way is to say that the world itself is an expression of that which transcends the world. This means that spirit is deeply embedded in the world, and not apart from it. This latter view suggests that we can embrace what is in front of us as a lesson of kinds, rather than reject it in favor of something more 'world transcending'.