Power, Suffering, And Me

WED., JAN. 29, 1997, 8:40 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

The sun shines brightly through your windows in this fine office. It is a cold, but clear winter day, and though you were slow this morning you arrived in time for a provocative discussion of Paul’s letter, from prison, to the folks at Ephesus. Now it is quiet, you have paper and our pen, and you are ready for some education that is always “the Best”. You can depend upon Me, almost at any time and place.

You’re never quite willing to affirm, in discussions like this morning’s that I have told you that I have the supreme and ultimate power in this earth scene. This means, finally, that nothing happens that I don’t cause OR allow. But… I don’t “micromanage” all that is in the earth. I have established “laws” and “procedures”, and I generally just let them work.

For example, I have “allowed” the development of the automobile, a “creation” unimagined in Biblical times. These can be quite valuable in human life (but remember that only a relative few, less than 1%, of present humans own one)… but I also knew they could be a cause of accidental death. So you read that a man driving on a highway hits some ice, loses control, and runs into a truck coming the other way. I did not necessarily cause this to happen, but I could not but expect such, on any one day. I could have intervened, but I didn’t… though I do, sometimes, for reasons important to Me. Snow and ice are part of the weather, here and in many other human habitations. Some will inevitably die or be injured and suffer because of this. I see this as just part of the panorama of life.

So one major premise is that I have, and always have had, supreme Power. I have not given this up to anyone or to any other being or power, BUT I can choose not to exert it, and just let conditions develop “as they will”. If something happens that is not satisfactory to Me I have great powers of adaptation, and I can always make it come out more favorably, in time or in other realms.

There is suffering in the earth… even as I see the balance, overall, as being positive and pleasurable. Entropy applies here, in a somewhat strange way. As the human population increased there will be more suffering, inevitably, just as there will be more waste produced by more lives. And just as waste increases with new ways to transform energy, so suffering increases with conflicts among groups of people. Also, though your national average income is sufficient to fund a fairly comfortable life, this average includes incomes that go higher and higher and others that make for suffering. This sometimes leads to crime, which can mean suffering for victims and/or suffering for the convicted and incarcerated criminal. In the Biblical “fable” Adam and Eve suffered because of Eve’s action. Abel suffered because of Cain’s action… and I seemed to be “behind” both incidents. Suffering is part of earth life.

You have had relatively little suffering in your life, thus far. Perhaps you will have, before it is over. Hear Me tell you that if you do, it shall be because you “deserved” such, from actions and motivations before this earth life (and We agreed to this before you were born). OR, it shall be a test of your spirit, from which that spirit can grow. Conversely, if you don’t have to suffer, much, that means that you have no karma to “work off” in this life or that you don’t need that sort of spiritual challenge. Remember that I have told you that a major challenge for you is to be thankful to Me for the many blessings in your present life.

Never doubt My Power, even as it may seem that conditions are becoming “ungodly”. Just as it shall be quite difficult for your culture to achieve and maintain a balanced budget (let alone reduce the debt!) it shall be hard for Me to reduce the current increase in human population without considerable apparent suffering (let alone reduce the actual number of humans).