Firstly, this is a fairly lengthy blog so I apologize.
As of late I’ve been reading, a whole lot. A whole lot of everything. Perhaps an obsession, maybe even a mask for incompetence and insecurity. Regardless, the information being read through the various books I’ve purchased continue to revolve around a few topics. One topic being biblical references which I, as a man of science, struggle to believe yet simultaneously find the correlation in today’s sense without the fancy names and letters behind them. Another is suffering….. We, as humans, are imbued with incredible periods of incredible pain. Pain through mental illness, pain through heartache from others, pain from physical illness and even pain from rejection and even pain from termination from work, school and other groups. We endure so much pain for unknown reasons.
While I struggle with the bible I can sometimes find references that have some current applications though I tend to find myself dismissing the story. Then again, much of those stories I tend to justify being stories of a classical “same shit different day” theology. Only, these are same shit, different times. These stories make me smile and even then I reflect because you hear many of the same problems now as you do from stories over 2000 years ago. In over 2 millennia we still have the ability to lie, cheat, steal, harm others and all the jazz. We are apparently slow learners….
Next I feel the need to address suffering. This is huge! A huge, long and arduous topic that I want to shrink down a little. Suffering. What do we think it really is? Do we suffer more or less than anyone else? Is that suffering deserved or inflicted? Is it something we had coming or is it something that we simply ran into? Point is, no matter how the suffering started we all must endure it time and time again. I feel suffering is a lesson from a really cruel person or teacher. A lesson we must learn and as I stated above, we are really slow learners.
Sometimes the suffering we go through is because we continue to choose to wear a chip on out shoulder. Sometimes we suffer because we cannot for the life of us figure out, we have relationships with unhealthy people. Sometimes we suffer because we don’t know how to express what needs to be said appropriately so we end up losing jobs, friendships, family and others simply because our ignorance is greater than our ability to ask for help. But yet still, we suffer…. How do we break that habit? Where do we start?
The final concept of this process is consequences. Now, consequences isn’t always a bad thing. I like to think of them as a neutral reward. Not all consequences are bad, not all are good. One consequence of working ample shifts at work is a better paycheck. Another consequence is if you tell someone they’re a piece of shit, you might lose that friendship. Same word, different reward. So what is a consequence of suffering?
While we may not see it immediately and shun those who have caused us suffering, we may also need to look at yourself as to why we are suffering. Are we suffering because we made a bad choice and need to admit and rectify it or are we suffering because someone betrayed us and abused our trust? Regardless of those scenarios, suffering we are and will need to begin anew. Learning the lessons of suffering we all have to do. We may be suffering because a breakup has us angry and sad and feeling a million other emotions because something we thought was forever now gone and any plans we had made are now dust and we are forced to rethink of something new for the future. Maybe the lesson there is to be weary of people more, to be more observant of them and ourselves. Maybe we want something we simply can’t have and we ignore the signs for it. Maybe we suffer because we want to do much more with our lives but lack the motivation and skill to power through to the next stage. That pain and sorrow is an excellent motivator to move. Not too often do people tend to stay where they’re uncomfortable. Much like sitting in the rain after a while it gets cold and soggy, and we no longer wish to sit there. The same goes for that suffering. It’s a good push to move you from where you are.
Above all the stubbornness and jealousy and defiance the pain we endure motivates us to move forward to make some for of change. Maybe that’s the grand purpose of it. To accept that while we may have it all figured out receiving sudden and unexpected pain and suffering may be the signs we need to actually feel to get the ball moving. Maybe that’s it. To finally feel something so miserating that we get moving.
