If there is a loving God, then why does God allow us to suffer?
Many people struggle with this question: If there is a loving God, why does God allow us to suffer?
Life seems to be endless strife. And though we constantly struggle, the struggle is a blessing for there is no growth without struggle. We literally live in a soul forge. We are here to grow our soul over many, many lifetimes.
If everything was perfect, we would have no reason to leave our comfort zones. We would have no desire to grow, because we would already have everything. We would not learn anything significant. We would fill ourselves with endless joy, and ignore anything that brought us pain. We would ignore our weaknesses, ignore our shortcomings as a person, and just revel in our own individual strengths.
And what if we were created as perfect beings? Life would be meaningless, and boring. Being born perfet would leave a void in our lives, for we would have no purpose at all. Imagine being born perfect; what would you spend your time doing? If everyone was perfect, and everything was perfect, would there be a point to anything? I think not, and that's why struggle is truly a blessing.
Struggle gives us the desire to grow and the desire to help the world. Struggle allows us to see and experience pain. The pain fills us with the desire to alleviate pain from ourselves and from others. We struggle to alleviate that pain, and in the process, we learn and we grow. We learn to feel the pain of others
Over many lifetimes, we realize that we don't want to inlict pain on anyone else. Over many, many lifetimes, we learn unconditional love, which is the essence of God. And I don't think that is something that can be given instantly. I think unconditional love is a learned trait. One has to go through extreme lows, extreme highs, and everything inbetween in order to learn unconditional love.
One has to experience love, hatred, fear, jealousy, anger, joy, empathy, and unbridled passion. One has to live as a man, as a woman, as a busniessman, as a beggar, as a priest, as a dependent, as a criminal, as an artist, as the mentally ill, as a prostitute, as an addict, as a healer, as a warrior, and so on until the One can truly understand and accept the many.
Until the One sees that there is not only the one; but that there is the many and we are all connected. And to harm another is to truly harm yourself. So the struggle itself is the teacher that brings us to love and to the light.
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