The Hour of Crisis

It can be a renovation for the soul.

Thus, it seems that only through suffering can our lives be real. We want to lock up our hearts away from the crisis of suffering. We want to protect them from being broken. But then, in their security, they will become unbreakable. They will become hard hearts. Only through the suffering of letting go of our will to control can we experience anything as a reality on its own right—outside of ourselves. Only by opening ourselves in vulnerability can our suffering turn into the joy and wonderment of true communion with others and with what is real. Therefore, love itself is essentially a crisis because it is the intrusion (for better and for worse) into our lives of another. But unless the soul consents to suffering, it can never experience the renovation necessary for the experience of love and real life.