{"id":533,"date":"2006-06-13T20:54:20","date_gmt":"2006-06-13T20:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html"},"modified":"2006-06-13T20:54:20","modified_gmt":"2006-06-13T20:54:20","slug":"playing-the-pai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html","title":{"rendered":"Playing the pain of others"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m trying to learn how to understand the pain of those around me.  John Howard Griffin became "Black Like Me," choosing to live a pain that was foreign to him. <\/p>\n

There is a reason why jazz musicians will choose to learn to play other instruments, it allows them to better support them and respond to them during the song.<\/p>\n

Lately I have read two books that have affected me profoundly.<\/p>\n

\"Greatestgeneration\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

"The Greatest Generation," by Tom Brokaw, has affected me deeply.  I am in contact with people from this generation daily and I have found that they do not readily volunteer the pain but at the same time, it is very close to the surface…one only needs to ask a few questions.  Where did you spend your twenties?  How many anniversaries did you miss?  Tell me about the friends you lost during the war.  Do you still find yourself saving in case the economy crashes again?<\/p>\n

The other book is, "Night" by Elie Wiesel.  The horrifying story of a 14 year old boy who was forced to survive in Hitler’s concentration camps.  What caused this young devout Jew to grow up and write…\"Elie_15\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n

"Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.<\/p>\n

Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.<\/p>\n

Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Elie_wiesel_mug_small\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

On the cross, Jesus chose to absorb our pain; I want to learn how to follow in his steps.  I want to be willing to read the books, see the movies, drive in the car for six hours until I reach the desolate reservation of our Natives, cross the street and talk to my neighbor that was arrested last month…my gay neighbor who just lost his father…the woman across the street whose husband just abandoned her…<\/p>\n

Lord, help me to be willing to listen with my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m trying to learn how to understand the pain of those around me.  John Howard Griffin became "Black Like Me," choosing to live a pain that was foreign to him. There is a reason why jazz musicians will choose to learn to play other instruments, it allows them to better support them and respond to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"\nPlaying the pain of others - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing the pain of others - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m trying to learn how to understand the pain of those around me.  John Howard Griffin became "Black Like Me," choosing to live a pain that was foreign to him. There is a reason why jazz musicians will choose to learn to play other instruments, it allows them to better support them and respond to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-06-13T20:54:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/greatestgeneration.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Gelinas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Playing the pain of others - The Jazz Theologian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Playing the pain of others - The Jazz Theologian","og_description":"I’m trying to learn how to understand the pain of those around me.  John Howard Griffin became "Black Like Me," choosing to live a pain that was foreign to him. There is a reason why jazz musicians will choose to learn to play other instruments, it allows them to better support them and respond to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html","og_site_name":"The Jazz Theologian","article_published_time":"2006-06-13T20:54:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/greatestgeneration.jpg"}],"author":"Robert Gelinas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html","name":"Playing the pain of others - The Jazz Theologian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/greatestgeneration.jpg","datePublished":"2006-06-13T20:54:20+00:00","dateModified":"2006-06-13T20:54:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/greatestgeneration.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/greatestgeneration.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/06\/playing-the-pai.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Playing the pain of others"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/","name":"The Jazz Theologian","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Gelinas on Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01","name":"Robert Gelinas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","caption":"Robert Gelinas"},"description":"\"For more information visit: Jazztheologian.com Robert Gelinas is Lead-Pastor (and resident Jazz Theologian) of Colorado Community Church\u00e2\u20ac\u201da multi-cultural, interdenominational community of 3000+ followers of Christ in the Denver area. Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}