A Contemplative Guide to Healing Presence
There Is Suffering, There Is Love, There Is Jesus
For the part of me that is learning to rest as awareness.
“Love is Everything.” — G. Ross Clark
Introduction
This reflection arises from a living experience — a moment of deep despair transformed by awareness and love. It is a story of simplicity, surrender, and the meeting of mindfulness and Christ presence. What follows is both devotional and practical: an invitation to see suffering not as something to resist or personalize, but as an opening through which love and Jesus reveal themselves.
What Happened
Earlier today, despair came — sudden, powerful, and unexplainable. There was no clear cause, only a wave of sadness that felt overwhelming. In that moment, rather than trying to analyze or escape it, the practice of simple awareness emerged: ‘Just note what is happening.’
With each breath came the gentle noticing: ‘sadness,’ then ‘suffering.’ There was no expectation, no demand for healing. Only presence. Gradually, something began to shift — the awareness widened, the sense of personal burden softened.
The inner language moved: ‘There is suffering. There is love. There is Jesus.’
In that stillness, the emotional storm dissolved. Function returned, and peace — not as avoidance, but as loving Presence — began to radiate from within.
The Simplicity of Practice
This moment reveals the essence of contemplative practice — not striving, not fixing, but simply being aware. In mindfulness, the power is not in doing something to the experience, but in allowing the experience to be held by awareness.
When we note gently — ‘sadness,’ ‘suffering’ — we step out of identification and into knowing. Awareness itself becomes the healer. The experience is no longer ‘my pain’; it is simply what is appearing within consciousness.
The Movement of Healing
There is a sacred sequence that unfolds naturally when we rest in awareness:
• ‘I am suffering.’ — identification and contraction.
• ‘There is suffering.’ — awareness and witnessing.
• ‘There is love.’ — the heart’s natural compassion arising.
• ‘There is Jesus.’ — communion with divine presence.
In this movement, personal suffering transforms into universal compassion. The presence of Jesus is not an external visitation but the awakening of divine love that has always lived within.
“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28
The Wisdom of Not Personalizing
It is both wise and healing to refrain from making pain personal. When emotions are owned as ‘mine,’ the mind contracts around a story — why this happened, who is to blame, what it means about me. This contraction sustains suffering.
When the same emotion is observed impersonally — ‘There is suffering’ — the experience remains, but the identification dissolves. Awareness becomes spacious, capable of compassion. This is not detachment but inclusion: allowing everything to be held by love without resistance.
Daily Practice
Set aside a few minutes each day for this simple contemplation:
1. Sit quietly and feel your breath.
2. If an emotion arises, note softly: ‘There is sadness,’ or ‘There is fear.’
3. Do not analyze or correct. Simply acknowledge.
4. When the space opens, note: ‘There is love.’
5. When the heart opens further, note: ‘There is Jesus.’
6. Rest in that awareness — silent, loving, and whole.
Reflection Prompts
- What happens in me when I stop trying to fix suffering and simply note it?
- How does the phrase ‘There is suffering’ change my experience of pain?
- What does it feel like when love appears naturally?
- How do I sense the presence of Jesus in stillness?
- What helps me stay simple, present, and trusting?
Closing Blessing
Beloved Jesus,
Thank You for entering the quiet space of my heart.
Where there was suffering, You brought compassion.
Where there was despair, You revealed love.
May I remember, again and again:
There is suffering.
There is love.
There is Jesus.
“Love is Everything.”
— G. Ross Clark