Good morning…
We canceled class last month due to our southern snow, so yesterday was our first Sunday afternoon gathering of this new semester. How wonderful it was to share prayer concerns, unpack tangled thoughts, and glean nuggets of life-giving wisdom. Our book for this season is a treasured classic, Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. Here are some of the truths we processed together.
- “It is first a book about survival. Like so many German and East European Jews who thought themselves secure in the 1930s, Frankl was cast into the Nazi network of concentration and extermination camps. Miraculously, he survived.” (ix)
- “Frankl approvingly quotes the words of Nietzsche: ‘He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.'” (ix)
- “Frankl kept himself alive and kept hope alive by summoning up thoughts of his wife and the prospect of seeing her again, and by dreaming at one point of lecturing after the war about the psychological lessons he learned from the Auschwitz experience.” (ix)
- “The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life… man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.” (x)
- “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do to what happens to you.” (x)
- “The consciousness of one’s inner value is anchored in higher, more spiritual things, and cannot be shaken by camp life.” (62)
- “The way a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even under the most difficult circumstances – to add a deeper meaning to his life.” (67)
- “I quoted from Nietzsche… ‘That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.’ And I quoted a poet… ‘What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.'” (82)
- “At that moment there was very little I knew of myself or of the world – I had but one sentence in mind – always the same: ‘I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and He answered me in the freedom of space.'” (89)
As a class, we talked about our own seasons of suffering, our own less intense yet very real “camp life” experiences. Surgeries and setbacks. Physical pain and limitations. Caregiving for a loved one with Alzheimers. Journeying courageously with cancer. Living through the death of a child or spouse.
In what ways might we each gain inner strength from a small nutshell of Frankl’s wisdom?
Discover your own Why.
Anchor your inner self to God’s higher values.
Accept your fate and all the suffering it entails.
Take up your cross and add a deeper meaning to life.
Trust this truth: What does not kill you makes you stronger.
What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.
Exercise your freedom to choose how you will respond to situations you cannot control.
Call to the Lord from your narrow prison and expect Him to answer you in the freedom of space.
Pushed to the wall, I called to God; from the wide open spaces, he answered (Psalm 118:5, MSG).
Let’s prayerfully ponder: From the wide open spaces, what answers might God be giving me today?
…Sue…
