How do we explain the difficulties and heartbreaks of life in light od God’s love?
I think you might like this video on the subject:
If everything was easy, would many even think about God? Life is hard, because of man’s fall from grace. Sin entered the world.
But, here is the “good news.” God sent us His only begotten Son to save us from sin, sorrow, and despair. He suffered, died, and rose, so that we might live.
And Christ did not only die, so that we might have eternal life in the next, but so that we might experience life abundant, here and now!
I spent some time in Adoration last night and this was one thing that was conveyed to me. And thought the world is sometimes crazy, that moment I got to spend with our Lord was full of beauty and wonder.
I often wonder why the devil is allowed to roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls (and often succeeding, I suppose). I often end the St. Michael prayer with my own request: Please do it soon!
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Thanku for this video. I agree that Offering it up gives u some purpose for the suffering.
God is in heaven. In Revelations it is described that He sits on His throne. He is surrounded by the heavenly hosts. But we are here. Why are we here? In heaven there is no birth, there is no death. No disease. No old age. No tidal waves, no plagues, no volcanic eruption, no earthquake. Why are we here?
This is explained in the Bible. We were in the garden of Eden. But we have been deported. Why? Misuse of our little independence. There was temptation. God said: “Don’t take, don’t taste the fruit of that tree.” But we wanted to taste that fruit - the fruit of the independent search for pleasure.
In heaven, the only desire of the soul is the desire for God’s pleasure. Above all, Jesus instructs, God wants our love. The symptom of love is to desire to please God, through loving service, through glorification of God. In this way the spirit soul becomes satisfied, fulfilled.
But the temptation fruit is the pursuit of independent satisfaction. Not to serve God, but to serve ourselves, to serve our senses, and to be served by others, to lord it over others. Therefore the material world is created, and we were deported from the Garden of Eden. And in the material realm, we can seek our fulfillment independently…but the conditions are hard labor, pursuing satisfaction by our sweat.
In the Garden of Eden there is no death. The spirit soul is eternal. He doesn’t require a material body. He has an angelic spiritual form. But in the material realm we are embodied in a material form which must undergo the process of birth, old age, disease and death. Also there is the process of sewing and reaping. We are instructed, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This is not a sentiment; it is a scientific fact. Therefore one man is born Prince Harry, and another is born paraplegic. One man is born into wealth, another is born into poverty. This is sewing and reaping, one lifetime after another.
So the question remains: “If God loves us so much, why is life so difficult?” We are placed in the material world for our redemption. Even though we chose to be independent, God doesn’t destroy us. He wants to reclaim us. Therefore He places us here, in the material world, where there is so much suffering. And this suffering is going on lifetime after lifetime, so that our spirit of independence begins to be humbled and we become able to “hear”. Therefore, God’s representatives come to this material world, and they say, “Those who have ears…let them hear.” Because by suffering here, the hope is that we will have a change of heart, and be willing to reawaken our dormant love of God.
Those who are pious, receive the fruits of piety. And those who are impious, receive the fruits of impiety…life after life. But pious or impious, birth and death continues. Therefore Jesus says, “It is not by good works alone that we can return to the spiritual world.” Rather, Jesus says, “The highest rule, the highest principle of spiritual cultivation is…to love the Lord thy God with all of our heart.”
Therefore the answer to the question: “If God loves us so much, why is life of difficult?”, is that these difficulties are imposed upon us for our rehabilitation, to break our spirit of independence, so that we become willing to bow our heads before our eternal Lord and Master…so that we can become qualified to return to the spiritual world…to the “Garden of Eden”, from which we have been expelled…according to our desire to independence.
We are fallen angels. And nothing bad is happening to us as spirit soul…only to the material body. But we are untouched by all of this. It is simply a form of hypnotism in which we are dreaming, that, “I am this body.” But we are not this body, this lump of flesh and blood filled with urine, stool, vomit, etc. It is a bad dream. But in this case, the dream is not subtle, like the dream we have at night. In this case, the dream is gross. An enlightened soul understands by direct perception, that, “I am not this material body. I am an eternal spirit soul.”
When our love for God is reawakened, we will be blessed with the direct perception that “I am not this body.” Then we will be indifferent to the dualities of the the material realm. Because the spirit soul who has reawakened his eternal love for God…his heart becomes filled with spiritual pleasure, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual detachment.
The bottom line is that God has created this condition of “difficulties” in order to reclaim us, in order to take us back home, back to Godhead. Why? Because, in spite of our desire for rebellion, for independence, God loves us so much, that He has created this material world for our spiritual rehabilitation. And the way to talk to kids about this, is to become a shining example of being “in this world, but not of this world”, so that our children will be inspired to follow in our footsteps. Unfortunately Catholic dogma does not give this explanation. It does not address the questions: “Why has God placed us here?” And, “Why are we suffering?” But these answers are provided in other scriptures…the Vedic Scriptures, which are said to be 5000 years old. Otherwise, Jesus gives the highest instruction: “Don’t seek your fulfillment in the things of this world…simply cultivate love of God our eternal Father in heaven, with all of our heart, with all of our strength.” And that is the ticket for returning to the spiritual world, our eternal home. We are all prodigal sons and daughters of God.