Pain and Suffering

Just the title of this post reminds me of my Catholic upbringing, how we were taught that to suffer would bring us closer to God.  I have to be honest this never really sat well with me, I always thought that the God I believed in did not want us to suffer he wanted only our happiness.  As I followed my own personal journey of spirituality, my belief’s evolved and I came to believe that God lives in each one of us and that Universally God is the connection of all of our souls. I make this point why?  A couple of months ago I created the intention to open up my heart, and the Universe did exactly as it always does and gave me some challenges to show me what an open heart was and how to experience it.  These challenges led to a lot of emotional pain and suffering, not surprising as my heart opening required me to deal with and release a lot of deep seated fears. When I was able to release these fears and open my heart I experienced such a deep feeling of love and openness that at times it made me cry with joy.  It was in these moments that I found myself being grateful for the suffering.  One day in my book club I was relaying this story and found myself actually saying “I am so grateful for this pain and suffering”, I could not believe I had uttered those words having admonished many a religious follower for saying them. Upon some further contemplation I could see that it was true, the suffering had brought me closer to God which to me means my soul/true self/spirit/light, (whatever your own word is) by providing me the opportunity to learn and grow.  We had also discussed in book club how actually most of the spiritual and religious teachings all have the same message, we just see things through our own percepticals based on our culture, conditioning, etc. If we could take our percepitcals off for just a few minutes (what I believe is one of the great benefits of meditation) and see with an open heart maybe there would be a lot less suffering in the world.  While I am grateful for the lessons learned through my own pain and suffering I am confident that as I evolve personally and spiritually this pain will lessen.  Can you find a lesson in your pain? Can you learn and grow from it? Then open your heart to receive what your own God has to offer. I say YES YOU CAN!  

(Thanks for sharing this quote Neil, I am borrowing it!)