In Defense Of Suffering

SUN., MAY 2, 1982, 5:15 AM
FARM, BREAKFAST TABLE

Suffering, o son, is an holistic matter. There is physical suffering, wherein the body generates pain, which can be of many sorts. You have experienced a few forms of bodily pain, but only a few, really. The varieties are many, as are the intensities… a tremendous range. Mental pain comes in knowing of some wrong that has been committed… and suffering comes from knowing… when it would be more comfortable not to know. Emotional suffering involves another wide range… certainly as wide as the emotions you can feel. There can be pains in feeling anger, which are different from the pains of jealousy or envy. Love can also bring suffering, particularly when love is not reciprocal.

Social suffering is when a group or an institution feels a common pain, often caused by being unable to do what it desires or is expected to do. Social suffering goes beyond that of the individuals involved. An individual feels pain, surely, but partly because others… and the group itself… are suffering. I’ll even include environmental suffering, because elements of the physical world can experience pain, of a sort. If this house had burned down yesterday there would have been suffering on this little knoll.

And then, of course, as the spirit rejoices, so may it suffer… so must it feel pain. You know that I have taught you that the spirit prevents pain and ameliorates suffering. Yet the spirit also feels pain and experiences that which it cannot quickly and easily balance. Example: if someone whom you loved and respected should criticize and castigate these teachings and deny My involvement in their origins the pain you would feel (and it could be mighty) would be fundamentally spiritual. You know you experience minor suffering when members of your family give no evidence showing acceptance of or excitement about this gift of yours. Know that it would hurt more if the rejection were more open and direct.

But consider the reciprocal situation. If Mabel truly believes, because of her walk with Me, that these teachings are not of My origin… and you affirm that they are… then she experiences spiritual suffering. And I seem to be the cause.

Consider the title again… in defense of suffering. This implies (yes, it does) that there is some positive value in suffering. I’m afraid I have to say, “Yes, that is truth”. Rhythm is the essence of a healthy life, and one of the elements of that rhythm is the experience of suffering. Some shall be in self alone, some shared with others, and, of course, some shall be that, in others, that you can help to relieve or eliminate.

Why do I allow, condone, even instigate suffering in this realm I have created and still rule? You know the answer before your hand writes it… it is a means of encouraging spiritual growth, and this is what I desire, above all, in each of you wonderful creations. It is a feature of the earth plane, and each of you knows this before you take up life here. I knew it when I came as Jesus. I experienced the suffering, in body, mind, and spirit, and though I had no need for growth I became “a bit more” because of that experience.