In the last months, several friends have suffered terrible losses to health and to loved ones. It seems like the perfect time to read the Bishop’s book for Lent this year, The Dave Test, by The Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt. Subtitled “A Raw Look at Real Faith in Hard Times” the book is a painfully honest (and indeed raw) look at the terminal illness and death of Schmidt’s younger brother Dave and the response of people around him as that illness halted his career, and then claimed his life over a seven year period. I found the book to be challenging and even unsettling, not that it is dense reading but that it is so painfully felt that it caused me to look more deeply at my own life, my beliefs and what I rely on when life deals a blow to myself or to those I love. I realized, again, that my head can hold one set of beliefs, but my emotional response goes much deeper than intellectual assent and is tangled indeed.
An experienced Episcopal priest, Schmidt is no stranger to pain and tragedy, and he asks us to validate its reality by staying honest in what we say and believe, by staying present and entering into that pain, and by staying in touch with God. Schmidt offers ten questions (the “Dave test”) that we might ask ourselves before offering comfort to those in grief; I would submit that we might ask ourselves the same questions in our own dark hours.
“Stained-glass language is trapped in an unreal world of ideas without a concrete point of contact with flesh-and-blood struggles”, he claims. I find myself questioning my understanding of God (head understanding) and my fear of emotional vulnerability when face to face with my deepest emotions. I believe it is only there where real comfort can be given and received without relying on what one reviewer calls “tattered responses” or the desire to be comforting and supportive while at the same time maintaining a safe emotional distance.
In his video introduction to Schmidt’s book the Bishop says that reading it will “give you a mirror to look into and challenge” our unexamined beliefs. And that, he notes, is a good Lenten discipline. The book may be checked out from the Resource Center (248.8 Sch)
