What a Secular Atheistic Jew Discovers About Pain and Endurance
If you are suffering from emotional or physical pain, relief is beautifully painted in Andrew Klavan’s autobiography, The Great Good Thing.
Seeing the great good thing doesn’t happen for Klavan until he comes to terms with his childhood pain.
Pain evolved despite the idyllic suburban life of the Great Gatsby neighborhood in Great Neck, NY.
His father was a super star DJ on the most popular drive time radio show in NYC. But, the white picket images of the neighborhood could not mask his father’s rage and his mother’s cold indifference.
Rarely do I read a book I can’t close. But, there are so many gems here, I must share three.
Follow the story wherever it goes
No matter what your emotional pain is, you must never give up on your passion. God made you that way. A great lesson from the book is to follow the story wherever it goes.
“But, a writer to find his voice, must first find himself.” Andrew Klavan
The human heart is story not science.
Story captures the inner life.
Klavan sees therapy and theology as markers for the path.
Some people need therapy before they are well enough to see theology.
Play through the pain
Even in the middle of pain, anger and alcohol, Klavan practiced his passion and gift.
He wrote early and often even as he wrestled the demons.
Late one night over a cigarette, scotch and a Mets game, he is ready to end it all.
Exhaling the smoke around his drink, he catches a comment from the announcer.
Mets catcher Gary Carter is doing a post-game interview. Carter usually played in pain from bad knees. But on this night, he drives in the winning run by beating the throw to first base. Carter was one of those who always praised Jesus when he did something good on the field. Maybe it was the bad knees. But like any other atheist, Klavan saw this as foolish and embarrassing. When the interviewer asks Carter what the key was for beating the throw, he didn’t praise Jesus. He just said, “sometimes you have to play in pain.”
Breakthrough not breakdown
Before finding the great good thing, Klavan saw all religion as a living myth.
He seriously engaged Zen and all forms of atheism from Kafka to Nietzsche. And yet none of these philosophies could account for evil and love at the same time.
Evil arose in this world because of deceit and distrust. Mankind wanted to be loved and accepted. But, fear overwhelmed love when it was offered.
Abundant joy breaks for Klavan the moment it all makes sense.
The great good thing is “the presence of God” in the heart of a human being.
“Religious vision has to be big enough to include the injustice and suffering of human existence.” Andrew Klavan
How can it?
See the last paragraph of my website on the Financial Crises of 2008 for more on evil.
Klavan concludes that truth is not clear until you see that God . . .
- loves you
- loves the world
- lights up your life when you let him in
The Great Good Thing, A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ, Andrew Klavan, Nelson Books, 2016, 269 pages, $24.99, ISBN 9780718017347
Have you found the great good thing?