Barneyisfat

This last weekend I went with Valodya and Ira Prokip to the village of Nova Skvaryava. Our mission was to dig potatoes. In the morning, it rained and rained – and I was certain that I wasn’t going to have to pick any potatoes. But, by the middle of the afternoon, the skies cleared up and we began heading out into the field to pick potatoes.

I needed to get out of the city, and I learned so much on my trip to the village.

As we rode the bus to Nova Skvaryava, I was so impressed by the road. Now, I hear Ukrainians complaining all the time about how bad the roads are in Ukraine – but I rarely feel that way. In my home state, we have some of the worst roads in the country. 70 years ago or so our governor had a brother with a big construction company. The governor paid his brother to build roads and he paid him by the mile. So – if there was a way to build a road straight and direct or a way to build it with many curves and corners at a much greater distance and a much higher price – the governor’s brother always chose the way that made him the most money.

And so our roads are long, windy, and terrible to drive. Now our state is poor and we cannot afford to keep all of these roads in good condition. Today we have to let some of them just sit without any repair. Many roads haven't been repaired since they were first built when my grandparents were kids.

So, I don't usually spend a lot of time thinking about the roads here - but I was really impressed with the road. It was paved, straight, and not bumpy at all. And all of a sudden, we went from a well paved and enjoyable road, to a dirt road which had never been paved. For 100 meters we bumped and meandered along. And after 100 meters, we drove back onto a perfectly straight paved road.

Valodya leaned over and said, "We keep this part of the road to remind us how bad things have been in the past."

These last couple of months have been pretty terrible. We have faced hardships and challenges, and pain and sorrow in ways that we have never faced before. For many of us - our roads have been smooth, straight, and well paved. Most of us don't remember the hard recession of our childhoods. Some have never experienced the death of a close friend or family member.

We don't have to look far into our history to see a time when tragedy was normal. In our countries, our grandparents' generations saw so much death and suffering. From wars to famine, their roads were bumpy and painful for decades. We don't have too look far to see countries and places where this is still the norm.

The shadows prove the sunshine. Without the darkness of shadows, we wouldn't know that the light is real. Our pain and suffering during this time of great tragedy reminds us of God's great love and the mercy he has shown us. Think of the tragedy our grandparents' suffered. Think of how much harder this would be to go through without our faith. Think of the pain if Illya and Maks weren't such wonderful people of faith.

As we return to the paved path we are used to - as life goes back to normal - we will be reminded of this path. Our exams won't seem so awful, the flu will pass, and we will move forward with the knowledge that every day is a gift.

I love the idea of planting potatoes. You take something that is perfectly good and you put it in the ground. A potato that could be used for food, is buried under the earth, and months later the roots lead to more and more new potatoes. And Jesus points to this same idea.

John 12: 24-26

In this life, we are desperate to hold onto something. We feel that if we can get good grades, or a good job, or entrance into a special program that our lives will have meaning. But God calls us to let go of our lives. If we hold onto to our lives we cannot also hold onto God. If we let go of our lives, they will multiply over and over again throughout the world.

Sometimes all we feel is the death, and we don't feel or know what the rebirth will look like. We feel our pain, and we can't believe the good joy that God is planting in our lives.

Finally, after raining all morning the rain stopped and we immediately went to the fields to pick potatoes. They put me together on a team with the oldest potato picker. She told me about picking potatoes before their family had a horse. She explained how to tell which potatoes were good and which to leave behind. She laughed at my Ukrainian. We had a great time.

After picking potatoes for hours, my whole body hurt. Valodya's family laughed and said, "You just wait until you wake up tomorrow."

They were right. For days my whole body has hurt. Muscles hurt that i didn't know I had.

And in life, we tend to believe quite strongly that pain is bad. If we hurt, we have done something wrong and we need to change. We are taught that we should stop pain. We should take a pill. We shouldn't cry. We shouldn't grieve.

But pain is sometimes good. Pain means that you are becoming stronger.

The heart is a muscle. This pain is making us stronger. We are able to face tomorrow stronger than we were yesterday. We are able to help other people in their grief. Our faith grows stronger in our great weakness.

When my friend Jonathan was dying of cancer, we would pray together and he would always end with the sentence, "God, please don't let me waste this cancer." He wanted God to teach him, to teach others, to show the world something wonderful in the midst of tragedy.

May we not waste this tragedy. May God teach our hearts. May God use our suffering to teach the world a lesson about our faith and our hope in God.

Amen.