From Despair to Astonishment

Have you ever come across words that felt like they were written just for you, right when you needed them most? That is what happened to Bradley Jersak when he first read Simone Weil.

Back in 2008, Brad’s life was falling apart. He was a pastor at a church that welcomed people from the margins. The congregation included individuals in recovery, those with disabilities, and the working poor. For years, he walked with others through grief and trauma. Eventually, the weight of it all became too much.

He says it was the first time he was not sure if he could trust God. And he knew he could not trust himself. Burnout, sorrow, and addiction left him in despair.

A close friend gently pointed him toward Simone Weil.

Simone was a French philosopher, mystic, and activist who lived a short, intense life (1909-1943). She was deeply committed to justice and refused to look away from suffering. She even worked in factories to share in the lives of the people working there.

Bradley picked up one of her books, and something shifted. Simone did not offer easy answers. She did not explain suffering away. 

One of her lines stopped him in his tracks:

“Your affliction is like a nail hammered into the heart of God.”

Simone was not trying to solve the problem of evil. She was pointing to the Cross as a place of deep solidarity. It is a place where God enters our pain and meets us.

Bradley says this was the turning point. He could not climb out of despair, but Simone gave him another way. “I could make a sideways move,” he says. “From despair to astonishment.”

That shift did not take away the pain, but it gave him a way forward. It led him toward healing.

One of Simone’s other teachings that stayed with Brad is this:

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

She believed real presence is what transforms us. No fixing. No striving. We simply focus on being fully present with others, ourselves, and God.

This post is based on “Living from the Heart with Brad Jersak: Simone Weil, Attention, and Affliction” with Bradley Jersak on the SoulStream Living from the Heart podcast. To listen to the full episode, visit our podcast page.