Bearing graciously the injustices of life

Good things happen in all our lives, yet it’s only a matter of time before the good things we are given are taken away.  The nature of life is just until it isn’t.  We may either be thankful or feel entitled to the good things we get, yet inevitably, we are challenged when injustice strikes, because it always feels unfair.

It feels like it shouldn’t happen to us.

We feel unappreciated, fooled, transgressed.

How are we to forgive these injustices when they occur?

In other terms, how are we to move on having been floored?

Usually it’s a person or people that is behind it, so often there is a target for our resentment.  I’ve always been surprised at how little it takes for resentment to rise, for resentment is common to humanity.

How are we to deal with those things 
that occur that we feel are unfair?

As a truism, whatever we focus on becomes bigger.  We are allowed to feel hurt when unexpected injustices arrive on our doorstep.  Those who love us will understand without encouraging us to dwell in unhelpful spaces.  The normal mental and emotional processing task usually takes any of us a day or two to process what comes as an initial shock to our system. 

We are all human beings, 
and none of us is expected to respond well 
emotionally when we are blindsided.

Allowing ourselves a human response to injustice 
is a way of being gracious with ourselves.

It is the first step towards the ongoing process of graciousness in meeting injustice in a redemptive rather than a destructive way.

Meeting injustice with anything productive is a seriously hard thing to do.  Much of the time we don’t have a clue how to respond, especially when it is anger that we feel which is perplexing to overcome.  We feel that the injustice has forced our hand and our choice is taken away from us.  This is why it is right to allow ourselves to feel the ugly emotions.  To give ourselves that permission without succumbing to judging or condemning ourselves or attacking others.  Without succumbing to fight or flight.

To simply feel the pain of the injustice 
without reacting can be tricky.

We use our higher mind to avoid reacting. 
As much as is possible.

As we engage in sitting WITH 
the truth of the pain we experience, 
acknowledging we cannot ‘fix’ it, 
there, even there, we are growing — 
in acceptance, in maturity, in resilience.

Especially when we don’t feel we are growing. 

Another opportunity we can reconcile with injustice is in accepting that injustices do and will occur, and that none of us escape the plight of resentment that unfolds.  We do not need to feel duped or ashamed or exposed in being dealt a harsh blow.  But we will, indeed, feel painful, awkward, and uncomfortable emotions.  Injustice is the lot of all at some point in time.

But injustice tends to isolate us whereby we feel we are the only ones poorly treated.  If only we can remind ourselves that everyone has their turn at injustice.  We are not being isolated, even if it feels like we are being isolated in a particular way in the here and now.

Bearing graciously the injustices of life, we come to expect that they will occur, and that we will never enjoy them.  We can prepare as much as we can, but like in all forms of loss, there is always a surprise element, and that surprise element is what we feel is the hardest.  

Injustice is loss. 
We will never enjoy it. 
But we can go gently with ourselves.

Injustice may take us to anger in a flash.
Just the same, injustice can take us to humility.

Humility is the bedrock of growth.
See how injustice is an instrument of growth.