NECESSARY SUFFERING V. REASONING MIND

Some kind of falling, what I call “necessary suffering,” is programmed into the full journey….It is not that suffering or failure might happen, or that it will only happen to you if you are bad (which is what religious people often think), or that it will happen to the unfortunate, or to a few in other places, or that you can somehow by cleverness or righteousness avoid it. No, it will happen, and to you!...Losing, failing, falling, sin, and the suffering that comes from those experiences—all of this is a necessary and even good part of the human journey. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," October 9, 2013.

The reasoning mind can never agree to trust God completely if it accepts what Rohr professes as the reality. It is the reasoning mind's contention that the acceptance of  "necessary suffering" would put it out of business, would be its death knell. Its very job is to reason us away from suffering...or at least away from making a mistake, a wrong decision. And its justified plaint is ever, "But what about deciding whether to leave an abusive relationship?" "...whether to put my little dog down?" "...whether to take this job?" "...whether to leave that job? Because God isn't going to, etc., etc., etc."

To ever trust that God does have our back, we begin by making our decision to turn ourselves...bodies, blood, bones and brains...over to the care of God. Then we start by acting as if we do indeed truly trust God. We simply sit and wait and listen, listen, listen. And soon...or soon enough, we don't get to judge that...we find we are being led. We call it intuitively knowing, and we act...to do the right thing or not!

Way too often it seems like the wrong action to our reasoning mind...that's the hook that keeps turning us away from trusting the Voice within. It doesn't give us a reasoning mind-approved answer, or it doesn't answer/act fast enough to allay our fears, so we follow our reasoning mind's urge to do something else...quick.

If we allow ourselves to trust God, we may have trepidation which is OK...that just turns us deeper toward God...but we will no long live in indecisive fear.

Fear not, little children, for indeed I have your back.

Thank You.