A Creed For Those Who Have Suffered

Have you ever suffered? A silly question, right? Haven’t we all suffered in some form? Perhaps not as much as others, but we have suffered.

I found a poem years ago, and I want to share it with you today. It’s called A Creed For Those Who Have Suffered. I found a copy of it in my father’s bedroom the week he died. I understood immediately why my father had it, for he had suffered.

He suffered from the painful spine curvature of scoliosis. And from Parkinson’s. His shaky hands could not button his shirt. He died of a heart attack at age 67 without ever getting to enjoy his retirement.

We had the Creed read at Dad’s funeral. I do not know, but I do hope that my father found a perspective in the poem that enabled his mind and spirit to transcend the despicable fate of his body – while still trapped inside of it.

We need something to give us solace at such times because sometimes we cannot shake suffering. Its choke hold is absolute. There is no fix. No prescription. No therapy. No cure. But there is space to rise above suffering. Not all of us can attain it. Or maintain it. But it exists.

As our body betrays us, we shift our focus onto the soul. That is the key, and that is obviously what the Creed author did. I don’t believe Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella authored the poem but he supposedly read it publicly in 1959 after a car accident and spinal injury paralyzed him, ending his career.

My dad, by the way, was a Dodgers fan. I do not think, though, that he knew how much the poem had touched Campanella. I cannot know what comfort it might have offered my father, but I can pass it on to you in hopes that it will encourage you now or on another day.

A Creed for Those Who Have Suffered

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.

I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do great things.

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy.

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for – but everything I hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among men, most richly blessed.

What course of thought or attitude encourages you in the midst of suffering?

 

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