Prayers can't fix everything, and maybe they are not supposed to......
Our lives are a journey that is wrought with hard lessons and suffering. It is meant to push us to places that our brains told us we could not survive. We limit ourselves to be comfortable and because we feel that through these limitations, we can control our lives. Part of the lesson is finding out that our life is not to be controlled, it is to be lived and experienced in a way that our soul can learn and flourish in the next the realm. This life is but a physical preparation on our ultimate spiritual journey. It is the seed that is planted by the soul to nourish itself and prepare for the next phase.
Often times, it doesn't seem fair for some to suffer more than others, especially good, loving, and kind hearted people. But it is the suffering that erodes the stone and buffs the jewel. We never know what we are made of or how truly strong or blessed we really are until we have to face what we perceive as unfaceable.
This life is not meant to be easy. It's about learning lessons and finding our true selves so that when we move on to the next realm, we have physically experienced all that our soul needed for it to grow and understand what we needed to learn. Our spirit does not die with our physical bodies, it lives on without the limitations of time, space, and physicality, in the midst of all of those that we love. We fear death and suffering so much in this life because we cannot fathom its purpose in our limited comprehension, but there is purpose and benefit for us, and for others who walk with us in this life and the next.
So when our prayers can't fix our problems, we must learn to accept the journey of this life. It is not about having faith in God so that we may petition his mercy during our times of turmoil and pain, it is about having faith that we are on the path that will teach us what our soul needs to know. God wants what's best for us and I think that means he wants us to thrive in times of adversity and not choose to opt out of our lesson. That is the example that was set for us by Jesus having to take up his cross and face his own suffering and death. Pain and suffering are an integral part of our physical life. I have learned this the hard way, and it has taken many hours of soul searching and listening to my inner voice for me to comprehend the magnitude of the pain I have experienced in my life so far.
I don't pray for pain and suffering to be taken from me anymore, I pray that I can persevere the physical and emotional pain when I need to and always seek the light beyond the darkness. I have opened my wounds for healing, not the miraculous kind, but the slow and subtle kind that will leave me with the lasting effects of having healed from the inside out.
I am living this life and traveling this path with the knowledge that I am building something bigger. I accept the pain and suffering that I must endure and I do my best to use that energy for good, to help others and myself find a greater meaning in the suffering we all have to face in our lives. I have learned that just like Jesus, the cup of pain and suffering cannot pass my lips without me taking a drink from it. Now I walk my journey with faith that all I learn from this life will build upon the next. We are all called to be like Christ and to accept our sufferings for our own good and the good of others whose lives we touch.
Tara Rodney
11/25/13
Dedicated to Tobey Knight a friend and pioneer to many on the journey to find the true strength and grace of spirit.