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Making Sense of Suffering

Updated on August 3, 2014

Of late I have been trying to understand the nature of suffering and why it exists in the world. Besides our own individual trials that we are dealing with, it seems suffering is all we hear about in the media. It seems to be escalating, too, with all the natural disasters and conflicts that are occurring around the world. It is constantly in our awareness.

After all my mind meanderings, I have determined that although suffering is sometimes needless, it frequently serves a higher purpose, but never should it be senseless. To the one in the midst of the suffering, it is not unimportant, insignificant or absurd, and hopefully it is never without meaning.

Whether we are struggling with our endless day-to-day minor to major burdens, or enduring unbearable agonies, we are in a state of suffering. Suffering can take the form of physical pain, mental anguish and/or emotional trauma.

We live in a real illusion that the human collective created to experience dualism, where there is a perceived good and bad aspect of every event or happening. If we continue to predominantly feel disconnected from our true selves – our higher selves that gives forth perfection, purity and Godliness – suffering has the potential to always exist in the low vibration of the 3rd dimension.

Suffering has been a consequence of living in this free-will zone, where each individual can choose the adventures or ordeals they want to experience, and their reactions to them. How an individual chooses to act, think or feel affects the rest of humanity, and ultimately the rest of creation, like the ripple created on a pond from a thrown stone. The effect from a negative ripple is as far-reaching as a positive one. Since we all suffer to some degree, it is when we handle the challenges we face with joy and gratitude that we make the most valuable impact.

I have also surmised that most suffering is self-imposed, whether the suffering is needless or serves a higher purpose. While needless suffering is usually imposed by an untamed ego-self that refuses to let it go, suffering that serves a higher purpose has been imposed by the soul-self prior to incarnating on the Earth plane.

Your soul-self plans each incarnation very carefully, including every aspect of the lessons to be learned, from what circumstances will surround each lesson to who will help with bringing the lesson into your awareness. Your soul knows that it will need to prompt you to learn the lesson, which many times means making you feel uncomfortable enough in your present circumstances so you will consider making a change. Without this remembrance, though, it can be easy to let the ego-self take control. The ego-self, however, prefers the status quo and is afraid of change, especially change that results in self-empowerment. It can be very creative in “making real” your perceived inadequacies. It is the conceiver of feelings of self-hatred and unworthiness. It may even try to convince you that it is your legacy or you deserve to suffer, need to be punished or are powerless. Giving in to the ego-self, refusing to learn the lesson and let go of the suffering, is when your suffering becomes needless.

Your life plan may also include a mission that has a higher purpose to serve the greater good for all of humanity. Your mission, for example, may be to act as a trigger to awaken the rest of humanity to injustices or to help bring about events that will lead humanity to something better, such as a Golden Age. When your mission comes to the attention of forces of the dark, which it will if it is going against their agenda of keeping humanity dis-empowered, they will set about to attack you and take whatever means they deem necessary to see that you fail in your mission. Prevailing against these dark forces may be the source of your suffering, but it is not without great significance because of your love for humanity and your total belief in your mission, which drives you forward and keeps you going, even if the mission fails in the end. Although, you may think giving up and giving in to the dark may end your suffering, to do that means denying your very self, which creates a very different type of suffering that is far more unbearable and has eternal aftereffects.

Suffering it seems is unavoidable. Our challenge, then, is to not avoid the suffering, but to be sure that it is not trivialized. Make sense of suffering and give it meaning by honoring those that have sacrificed, including your self. Do what you can, however little, to alleviate the suffering of others through love, prayer and sharing. Choose to embody and emanate your own truth, light and love. Choose to awaken to the meaning behind your suffering and learn the lessons. Embrace and live out your life purpose. Stand up for humanity! And, most importantly, be grateful! For when all is said and done at the end of this age, it is you that will inherit the New Earth.

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