It’s Monday. Speaking of pain….. why do we think pain in the only way to learn? Why the phrase “No pain/No gain”? Why did my grandmother say when brushing my hair and I winced, “You have to suffer to be beautiful!”? It is because we truly believe we must go through pain in order to feel, connect with and experience God. I do not believe this is something God requires. God can absolutely turn suffering into revelation and fear into honey spoons but do we really believe God desires us to suffer in order to be free? I have noticed how deeply rooted this belief is and I have begun to question it. Maybe my constant practice of extending love is clearing out enough debris for me to notice some of the really ancient, outgrown thoughts at the back of the closet. Suffering is something my ego loves, it gives purpose to its presence. I, for one, am tired of believing this thought. So let’s extend honesty to this thought and see what happens.
I know you are going to laugh but as soon as I decided to extend honesty to pain and suffering I found this quote. Holy Spirit does this to me all of the time! I ask a question then the next thing I pick up has the perfect message or answer.
Let the love that you are flow.
“Your Wholeness, your entire psyche, has one main directive:
BRING THE SEPARATED ONE TO THE KNOWLEDGE THERE IS BUT ONE SELF. THERE IS BUT ONE.
Every event you choose for your life, no matter how destructive, chaotic or miserable it may seem has been allowed to manifest because your Wholeness has an innate knowledge of those things you need to get you to the place where you will choose to sink deeply within into the stillness of who you are.
With all due respect, you created the idea that suffering could bring you Home. God created the idea that beauty, wonder, delight and peace could bring you Home. You can find your way Home, so you don’t need pain to guide you any more. Prove it to yourself by gently and firmly pulling yourself back to the silence and to the stillness.
The way out of sorrow is to be grateful toward (notice not for) whatever pain you created to move you closer to God.”
——-Reflections of an Elder Brother, by Bartholomew p. 26
This is reiterating what I am told over and over: extend love to your pain. Be with it, allow it, welcome it. Let the Loving do its good work on your perspective. Then you will remember again and again: I AM Home.
Suffering alone does not produce perseverance, only suffering that is endured somehow in faith. Life is filled with mini-trials. How will you respond to them? God is not unmoved by the pain of the creatures He loves. He embraces that pain and suffers with us.
It is so good to be reminded that God, indeed, embraces the pain with us. Thank you for this Howard! xoxo