Had quite the thought hit me yesterday... Let’s talk about the resource most squandered by the entire modern human race. Not talking about fossil fuels, solar energy or nuclear fission… I’m talking about suffering. Ignore the the giant red flag popping up in your brain, it’s wrong, keep reading. I was sitting in a church one day and a family came in, wheeling in their young daughter who was hooked up to a breathing apparatus and a feeding tube. I almost began to cry at the sorry state this child was in. Then I saw the family. They were the happiest looking family I have ever seen in my life. The parents looked tired but peaceful, and the little girls younger sister? Hugging her throughout the entire mass and giving her big kisses and smiling at her disabled sister. This family would not of been half as happy without the immense suffering brought on about by their disabled daughter. They had grown most in the few years of her life than any person will grow in decades. Let’s ignore the spiritual aspects of this problem and grace look at it from a purely human point of view: Suffering is the most valuable resource we possess as human beings. Necessity is the mother invention, but necessity usually implies a discomfort or a suffering that needs to be conquered. Almost all inventions are brought about through the need to end a suffering and fill a desire. Let that sink in. Almost everything we do is in some way pushed by avoiding suffering. Everything: Buying milk, working out, getting up in the morning. We do all this work day by day to be happy, to avoid discomfort altogether. However this causes one major problem: not having enough suffering. The easiest way to break a bad behavior is to suffer, getting lung cancer is a great reason to stop smoking. Suffering is the best way to overcome procrastination, getting stressed out before an exam definitely pushes you to study harder. It’s called trial by fire, almost everyone knows that. So what happens when you kill off children (oh no this is sounding like a moral judgement RUN) that are disabled or unwanted who would cause incredible amount of “suffering.” You are destroying the single most important way for you to grow as a human being. Suffering and caring for another person brings you out of yourself, forces you to let go of your personal needs and begins a very important process: giving to the community you’re a part of. How is this at all related? When you obsessed with your own life, you become stressed because of everything you can control, when you are forced out of your own life to give to others you are actually forgetting about your trouble because of the constant need of others. When others are all doing the same each person is ignoring their own trouble and focusing on others lives. The result? Complete ignorance of your troubles, compassion for others and an immensely supportive community that keeps on giving, in short a perfect community. When you suffer, you grow because you have to change, if other are suffering with you, the entire group supports each other. Now of course Im not talking about pointless suffering, if you house is drafty fix it, if youre being abused take steps to avoid abuse, if youre sick go see a doctor. But if you can suffer, then do it well. When a child is killed this entire supporting community is broken, no one needs to grow, no one need to be compassionate, no one needs help. You become your own world, with your own friends, never needing to move forward. When you give up even the chance of good suffering, you stagnate, you become stressed, you become angry, you over-react to the smallest change and good hearted people begin to grate on your nerves, because you think they are simply showing a false version of themselves. By accepting the suffering and joy that children (any children) bring, you allow yourself the room to become selfless and to become the most giving version of yourself, however if you try to hold on to your perfect world then it shatters every time something unexpected or different enters the picture. When we erase all suffering, we erase all growth, we stop all progress. Don’t stop the progress, begin using the suffering in your life to change yourself and others, become selfless and you’ll find that not only will your suffering cease, but you’ll have a community to support you that do the same. As a community of faithful I encourage you to look at the suffering in your life, use it to grow, you will never regret it. Sincerely, JP
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:11:30 +0000
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