From “Walk with Me: A Journey through the Landscape of Trauma” by Ellen Corcella
Frederick Buechner, a Presbyterian minister and extraordinary novelist in the vein of Graham Greene and C.S. Lewis, experienced the suicide of his father as a teenager. He identified the experience as the defining moment of his life. Later in life, he shared the lessons he learned about becoming stewards of our pain. Buechner suggested that we be awed by our instinct to bury pain, to not let pain stop our lives, to refuse to become embittered by pain. Buechner encouraged us to manage our pain, to see it, to feel it, to befriend it, and to become aware that God’s power can pull us through the pain. Buechner said that when we are in tune with our pain we can be true to who we really are in the depths of our being. According to Buechner, “pain can become a treasure if we treasure it…to the point where [pain] can become compassion and healing not just for ourselves but also for other people.