King of Pain

Another whisper. It’s only gotten louder since I first heard it maybe December of last year, until nowadays it is a daily talk point.

That our gifts bear our life’s mission; and that our gifts include, as much as our talents and joys, our pains.

And today, I had a further illumination: Why Pain?

Edward Munch’s The Scream. (so I might have entitled this, for the 80s peeps out there, Whisper to a Scream)

Today’s gospel was the calling of Matthew, the tax collector, and the greater thread of Jesus hanging out with sinners, thereby pissing off the holier than thous.

The story ends with the Lord’s parting shot: “Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

Mercy is a gift. It is freely given to us that we may freely give it to others. But compassion is a gift we can only give if we ourselves know pain. The Latin etimology makes this clearer: com passion, to suffer with others.


So where is our gift? Where can we live compassion? Whose pain are we particularly gifted to heal?


Very much the central question of each life, and in a special way, of founders, because of the mercies, the compassion, the healing they can startup and enable for so many.

A special thread we will examine in Founder Circle 3 and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey: discerning God’s tapestry of gifts and pains and healing woven especially for each one of us, pointing out whose pain we are partcularly gifted to heal, pointing out our life’s mission and purpose.

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Andre Yap July 7, 2017