We all feel at some point in our lives that if we met everything we are supposed to do here on earth---the ideal husband/wife, ideal student/employee, ideal this, ideal that, ideal Christian---we would then be free from all pain and suffering. If we are free from pain and suffering, we must be doing the right thing. This is not necessarily so....
Oswald Chambers points out, as I often have, that we shunned God to pick to be our own "gods"; then the universe came crashing down. In all actuality, we were the "gods" there in the garden---gods in the sense of management. We were to control everything in that garden...assuming we could follow one, and only one, rule.
I often laugh as I describe in various examples how we gave up the Garden, our birthright: For a fruit in the Garden....It reminds me of two stories. One, in the Bible, of Esau and Jacob...Esau was willing to forfeit his firstborn rights for a bowl of soup. Two, how in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Edmund was perfectly willing to tell anything and everything to the White Witch for "sweeties".
We were, are and ever will be greedy creatures. Whether our prize is the knowledge of good and evil, food, or whatever else stands out as a prize, we want it.
To restate, we mustn't stop trying----for those things in the opening paragraph are honorable things. There just needs to be a different slant. We should do those things not in hopes of a prize of an easy life, but to honor God. Be an ideal husband/wife to honor God, be an ideal student/employee to honor God, be close to God that you might honor Him with love. Be an ideal disabled person (whether medically or from the struggle of being brave when shy, talkative when depressed) who does the utmost able at that very moment to honor God. God knows when we have done our very most and why. I imagine that those actions please God.
Jesus Himself honored God in all He did---and it pleased God. Yet, to pay for our centuries of continued "god-self" choices, He faced something we will never face, something far more horrible than we can even begin to imagine.
He was hung to a cross; a terrible death by all accounts. What He faced which we will never face....was total abandonment by God.
Our trials are indeed wretched. God, however, does not leave us alone to face them.
He may seem far away at times, but I have found that that is because there is some sin festering we won't treat. Remove your sin! It is foolishness to cuddle a thistle plant as a child would a favorite toy! Let it go---for holding onto hurts, revengeful thoughts, anger or whatever you hold is so poisonous. I honestly believe that holding those poisonous, sinful feelings are bad for health--although I do not currently have a study in hand.
I cannot say that I can imagine the hurt and hate someone who has been raped would feel, or how a parent may be angered that their child had some illness, or how a child feels about parental divorce...but I can remember my own hurts, and how long they clung to me.
My friends, forgive that person, persons, company, or stranger who did something, however terrible it may have been or how wrong that other person really was......stop doing whatever sin it may be that is making your spirit twist and crawl as you read this: forgive and stop/ask forgiveness every single time that sin pops up until your heart no longer brings up old (or newer) pain.
We cannot hold onto hurts that have "done us wrong", as we are then in more wrong that the original story the longer we hold them.
I can say that, with so much time in the beginning of my RA, when I was so very sick...I spent a lot of time forgiving people. These were hurts I had forgiven before, and some at least a couple of times. It was when I thought about them, stuck on that bed or couch 24/7, that I realized I was not solid enough in my forgiveness. My forgiveness was half-hearted---a forgiveness that allowed me to see the people who had hurt me, but not enough that the original event did not replay the rest of that day. When we forgive, we have to really mean it, and really be able to pray to God and tell HIM that we mean it. One can't really pray a half-hearted "I forgive So-and-So for stepping on my shoe" to God. You will begin to feel ashamed of yourself, as the Spirit corrects you in your wrongdoing.
So, then, reader, while we may not be free from suffering here on earth (blessed are those who are!), we are instead blessed with facing battles not alone. God is with us, never leaving us on our own crosses to bear the pain and agony alone. I cannot explain why we face things, short of the curse...but we will have our escape to Paradise. In the meantime, I cannot express my gratitude that I can call on God, day or night (often night), and He is right there, ready to comfort, teach, and direct.
Peace be upon you all.
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