Misfortune

JULY 7, 1979, 6:10 AM

Let me tell you, o son, of misfortune. Clearly it is evident in the world. While some people flourish and prosper, others suffer misfortune and languish. Much sorrow comes with misfortune, so it is right that I explain how I am involved.

Let’s start right off: some misfortune is of Me. Some people need misfortune as experiences from which to grow… part of the rhythm of their lives that I direct. My people in the Scriptures certainly suffered misfortunes, and some that they deserved or needed. I see the rhythm. I see the growth potential. So I am responsible for some misfortunes.

Others come in order to give opportunities for compassion, service, and selflessness. Yes, you have said… how can a person show true concern and compassion unless another human truly hurts? So some people’s misfortunes are means to good ends in the totality of living experience.

Sometimes these two go together and sometimes they do not.

Then some misfortune just happens. You have wondered how this could be, given My direction of the world and the lives of people. That is a proper wonder. I do direct much that transpires in life, but I also have set the world in order. It operates on laws and principles of My origin, which are quite sufficient to maintain the integrity of the system. But it is impersonal. Within the system there is justice and there is chance. There are consequences for actions… and because circumstances are never the same twice, one situation brings health , vigor, and pleasure, and another, like it, brings misfortune.

I can intervene of course, and I do so, as I choose. That is, the total system is just… has a just rhythm to it… but justice may be harsh on some individuals. And therefore I may counter justice with mercy. I may prevent. I may heal. I may change the course of events, but always I know that such changes, because they are within My system, may well cause misfortune for others.

There is a rhythm, an interrelatedness to the flow of life (only a small part of which you are aware… and you are aware of more than many) that I see and feel. Sometimes, then, I just let things happen as they will, because to intervene, while beneficial to some, would bring hardships on others.

Because I have created a just system, overall, I usually cannot show mercy without messing up the justice.

An example that I was going to give earlier: I did not directly will the automobile. It is not my creation. But neither did people “put one over on me.” I saw its development as a result of the natural order I created and the human capacity to use creatively what has been given. So automobiles are part of modern life, subject, of course, to the justice and reality of the whole system. Excesses are naturally reduced.

As automobiles become part of the rhythm certain just laws come into play. Accidents “naturally” occur. And in them people, like Peter, are injured, maimed, and killed. Suffering comes, but it is the cost that must be paid in a just system.

My will still prevails, and many situations of suffering, not of My direct doing, bring growth, compassion, and progress for human spirits.